Compass
by nagidawn
Summary: Every day seems to be the same for Sonic. There's no evil to fight, and he and his friends are quietly living out their lives on Mobius as they should be. But Sonic quickly realizes that nothing feels right—it's as if someone dear and familiar doesn't exist anymore, and he begins to question their abnormal lifestyle. Why does this everlasting peace make him feel so uneasy? (SonAmy)
1. Good Riddance

**A/N: Welcome to another fanfiction that I'm starting without finishing the others. This fic is strictly SonAmy, so don't be deceived by the lack of it in the first few chapters.**

* * *

I—Good Riddance

Lately, their relationship had been growing more than she could ever wish for.

They would have civilized conversations, she could visibly see him enjoying her company, and he would willingly follow her around Station Square just to hang out. The most likely cause of it was that Eggman hadn't been doing much of anything at the time, leaving everyone to live their lives. She was happy that he was happy.

And yet... Because of her, it all fell apart.

If she hadn't been so foolish enough to keep her guard down, none of this would have happened. They were all gone now, and all she could do was sit here in her cell, clutch onto the dull hairpin that he gave her, and sob over the loss of everyone dear to her.

Whatever tortures that the Doctor had in store for her, she felt she deserved.

"Sonic…" she whimpered, "I'm so sorry…"

* * *

The roar of the wind blowing past the blue blur's ears drowned out the loud humming of the Tornado, which Tails was merrily driving that afternoon. From the wing, Sonic gazed down at the vast hills below and beyond them; a small river flowed through the valleys and mirrored the color of the pale blue sky.

Mobius was beautiful.

Sonic glanced at his fox friend—who was basically a little brother to him—in the cockpit and cracked a smile.

"Hey!" he called, "Shouldn't we be landing soon? It looks like it's gonna rain!"

Tails blinked in confusion through his goggles and tilted his head. "What?" he yelled.

Sonic cupped his hands around his mouth. "It's going to rain!" he shouted.

"Yeah, I know it's a nice plane! Thanks!"

The hedgehog groaned in annoyance and crawled closer to the pit. "No, Tails, I said– LOOK OUT!"

Tails had barely noticed that he was flying at such a low altitude that a sky-scraping windmill appeared in their path. With a shriek, Tails yanked the control wheel upwards and barely missed grazing a blade of the windmill. The plane then went through a series of loops and twirls, giving Sonic a few heart attacks, before Tails finally set it back on a correct, straight path.

Once the plane steadied itself, he began to laugh out of relief, and Sonic released a heavy sigh but maintained his strong grip on the plane's wing. However, he couldn't help but smile at Tails' joyous laughter.

He couldn't remember quite how long ago, but the villainous schemes of Dr. Eggman suddenly ceased to exist, and Sonic, along with his other friends and acquaintances, have been able to sit back and relax ever since. Tails hasn't laughed like this in a long time, and it brings warmth to the hedgehog's heart to see his best friend so happy. Sonic was glad that everything turned out well, in the end.

"Hey, Sonic!" Tails said after his laughing fit ended. "We should head home. It looks like it's gonna rain!"

Sonic gritted his teeth but forced a grin. "Mhm," he agreed, and with that, the Tornado turned around to fly in the opposite direction—towards the gray storm clouds hanging over Mystic Ruins.

It was already drizzling once the plane had landed next to Tails' workshop/home. Sonic noticed that the lights were on, meaning that Knuckles most likely let himself inside to take shelter from the storm that was coming.

"I'm actually glad that it's finally going to rain," Tails commented as he quickly locked up the Tornado inside a small garage. He skipped past Sonic and up the steps to his home. "My roses need a lot of watering."

"Roses?" Sonic asked, and Tails pointed to the bottom of the steps. The blue hedgehog had never even noticed the small garden of roses by Tails' front porch before. He studied the bright red colors and the way each raindrop softly kissed each petal before rolling onto the ground. They really were beautiful flowers; how had he never seen them before?

"Sonic?"

He shook his head, snapping out of his trance, and looked up to the fox who was calling him from the door. "You're getting wet," Tails chortled, and with that, Sonic sped inside and up to his room without another word.

As he shook the little water off of his head, he moved to the small desk in the corner of the room. He sat down at the chair, grabbed a pen, and opened up a small beat-up journal lying there.

_May 4th_

_Tails and I took the Tornado out for a ride around the valley again today. We didn't get to ride too long though, it started to drizzle and now there's a full-blown thunderstorm going on. I guess that's the only interesting thing that happened today... Oh, wait, he almost crashed into a windmill's blade! He's such a turd, haha. We're probably gonna go watch another movie in a few minutes, same as every other night. So... Later._

–_Sonic the Hedgehog_

* * *

A few days passed by, and Sonic found himself helping Tails force Knuckles into a nice, clean suit. "C'mon, Knucklehead!" Sonic exclaimed with a smirk, brushing the wrinkles off of the sleeves. "The sooner you do it, the sooner it'll be done!"

"I... I can't!" Knuckles sputtered. "If I slip up one word during this date, Rouge will stab me with a fork!"

Tails rolled his eyes. "Quit being so overdramatic. You're supposed to be the strongest out of us!"

The bow tie was finally clipped on and Knuckles let out an annoyed sigh. "Whatever. I know this isn't gonna work out... I never should've asked her in the first place."

"Oh, don't think that way, Knuckles," said a monotonic voice. They all turned their heads and Sonic jumped back in surprise to see two small robots enter the room. The one speaking was red and black, had a round head, and spoke with a glowing mouth. "We all have faith that you will do a good job."

"Uh, Tails, what's that?" Sonic questioned.

Tails smiled. "These are my two latest creations, Orbot and Cubot. I activated them just an hour ago while you were napping. They're gonna be my assistants and help out around here."

Sonic placed his hands on his hips. "Oh, so I'm not good enough for you?"

"When it comes to science work, you're a pest."

Knuckles lowered his eyelids. "How cute. Can I leave now? I gotta go pick up Rouge soon."

"Aren't you gonna bring her flowers?" Sonic asked as Knuckles made his way to the door.

"Uh, yeah. Tails, I'm gonna take some of the roses from your garden," the echidna replied before leaving.

Tails' eyes widened. "What?!" He ran to the front door and swung it open just in time to see Knuckles leaning down to pluck one out of the ground. "Knuckles, stop! Those are important to me!"

Knuckles snapped back up to stare at his younger friend. "Huh? Why?"

"I-I dont know..." Tails trailed off into a murmur, "I like them there. They give me happy vibes."

Sonic, Orbot, and Cubot followed Tails outside and watched Knuckles roll his eyes. "Alright, I'll just take this one, then. But they're just flowers, Tails. You can always plant more." And with that, he waved to them as he took his leave to Rouge's home. Tails sighed and nodded, even though Knuckles had his back to him and was far gone.

Sonic placed a hand on Tails' shoulder. "Cheer up, bud. Since you care about them so much, how about we go to town tomorrow and get some gardening stuff for you?"

Tails glanced up at his older brother and smiled. "That would be nice. And while we're gone, Orbot and Cubot can clean up around here."

"Certainly, Tails," Orbot gently agreed.

"You got it, boss!" Cubot sang.

Sonic flashed his teeth in an uneasy smile as he watched the two robots float back into the house. "Where'd you get an idea to build robots like those?" he asked Tails once they were out of earshot.

Tails began to scratch the back of his head. "Huh... I'm not too sure, to be honest. I guess it just popped into my mind and sounded like a good idea," he answered as he closed the front door. "Are they a problem to you?"

"Eh... They're a little creepy, not gonna lie."

"How so?"

Sonic squinted his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. "I can't really describe it... You know what? Never mind, I suddenly stopped caring."

Tails chuckled. "They're mostly gonna keep to themselves, if it makes you feel any better. Anyway, wanna watch a movie?"

* * *

_May 8th_

_I had another dream again about that girl again in the same format as the other dreams I've had of her. It's so weird; it's like re-watching my old memories of Eggman, except with her placed into the situations, but the weirdest part about them is that I don't know who she looks like, or if she even is a girl; it's just a huge blur. But the voice is really high pitched, so it's most likely a girl or a child. Or both._

_I don't even know if I should call them memories. I forgot that Eggman was even relevant at this point._

_Maybe I'll finally talk to Tails about it when we go to town today. Her presence is ruining my dreams, it's starting to annoy me._

–_Sonic the Hedgehog_

"Sonic, let's go!" Tails hollered from downstairs.

Sonic blinked a few times before yelling back, "Right-eo!" and zipping down the steps to Tails' side in under a second.

Tails wasn't even fazed nor impressed. "Took you long enough."

"Let's see you run halfway across the planet in ten minutes."

"How about you take us to the train and save us the walk?"

Sonic lifted Tails onto his back. "Fair enough," he replied before speeding off.

It was only a second before they appeared at the train from Mystic Ruins to Station Square. They got on board the crowded train and sat in silence for a while as the train took off.

Sonic always had a habit of studying the people around him during the ride and coming up with background stories for them. However, lately, he's been noticing that the exact same people are always on the train, no matter what time of the day it is. He wondered if Tails noticed the same thing, but when he glanced at the big brain, he saw him playfully swinging his legs and getting lost in his own little world. Sonic sighed quietly to himself and leaned his head back on the seat, closing his eyes. Maybe it was all in his mind.

**"The train will be arriving to Station Square Train Station in two minutes."**

Tails placed a hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. "Sonic, wake-"

"I know, I never fell asleep," Sonic spoke, standing up and stretching his limbs. Once the train stopped its motion, the two merged with the large crowd that was moving off the train. Sonic felt the fox's hand grab onto his wrist so that he wouldn't get lost. He would speed out if it weren't for the fact that he'd probably run over every creature in his way.

The blue hero took in a deep breath once they were finally outside of the train station. The same streets were always busy with the same people walking by...

"There's a flower shop just a few blocks from here," said Tails, who was looking down at a list of items written on a piece of paper. He turned to his left and started walking. "This way."

"Lead the way," Sonic gestured, following his friend. The walk was too slow for Sonic's taste, but Tails didn't seem to be in a hurry. "I wonder how Knucklehead's date went with bat girl?"

"Who knows?" Tails replied, not turning his head. "Sounds like you're not too keen on Rouge."

Sonic shrugged. "She probably wants him only for the master emerald."

"I don't know, they've always sent each other mixed signals."

"I doubt it."

Tails smirked and arched his neck back to look at Sonic. "Maybe you're just envious that you don't have a girlfriend."

Sonic laughed once, "Ha! Me? Envious of Knuckles? You're not as smart as you make yourself to be." As they walked, they passed by a window of a large clothing shop. "Knuckles isn't even an ideal date; did you see how he forgot the flowers? If I had a girl, I'd get her more than flowers. I'd get her..." He stopped and turned to the store's large window. "_That_."

Tails stopped walking and followed Sonic's eyes to a luminous butterfly hairpin sitting on display for the clothing store. The wing design was composed of bright, glittering white stones with a red marble stone in the middle, and the body was made of a shiny red material. The outline and antennae were made of gold wire, and the stones at the end of the antennae were also red.

Tails let out a whistle. "You'd probably want to marry her if you're willing to pay thirty rings for that cheap hairpin."

Sonic laughed. "Yeah, right–"

His words became stuck in his throat the moment he stared into the reflection of the window, which allowed him to see as far back as the other side of the street. There, he saw three small bug-like robots running around the pavement, stopping and turning to look at Sonic once they caught his attention. He quickly snapped his head around, but nothing was there. Arching a brow, he looked back at the window reflection to be given the same result—nothing was there.

The younger fox cocked his head to the side and gave a questioning look to his friend. "Uh, Sonic...?"

"Sorry, I thought I saw something," Sonic replied hastily before nudging the boy forward. He felt his heart racing and he took small, quick breaths to calm himself down. "Come on, I hate stopping."

Tails almost tripped over his feet. "S-Sure."

They stopped their tracks once again at a red light that prevented them from crossing to the next street, which was where their destination was. Sonic tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for all the cars to halt. "Hey, Tails, I've been wondering something."

"Yeah?"

"What do you think Eggman's been doing with his life lately?"

Sonic wasn't looking at Tails as he spoke, but the sudden silence between them forced him to turn his head to find Tails staring at the hedgehog with the most devastatingly confused face that the genius had ever made.

"Who?" the yellow fox asked.

Sonic would have chuckled at his attempt of a joke on any other occasion, but the questioning look in his eyes scared him for a split second because he knew that Tails was being dead serious. "Dr. Eggman... Remember?"

His brow furrowed in thought before his eyes grew wide. "Oh, right! Eggman!" he exclaimed. "Come on, we can cross now."

"I... What?" Sonic did a double take to find Tails already leaving him behind. "H-Hey, wait!" He caught up to him on the other side of the street and grabbed his arm. "Tails!"

"What?"

"Are we seriously going to ignore the fact that you legitimately forgot who Eggman was?"

Tails sighed. "Sonic, he's not relevant in our lives anymore. Obviously, I'm going to forget at some points."

"How can you forget this guy who was such a huge factor in majority of our lives?" Sonic folded his arms over his chest and noticed that people were beginning to stare, but he didn't care. "And besides, you don't know that he's gone for good. Maybe he has a plan to just pop up out of nowhere when our guard is down."

Tails simply rolled his eyes. "Now you're just being paranoid. He's gone, Sonic. Why is this suddenly concerning to you?"

Sonic opened his mouth to answer, but he realized that his argument wasn't logical enough to change Tails' mind. If Tails hadn't been feeling what he's been feeling for the past few days, then maybe he was just being paranoid.

"Forget it, you're right," sighed the blue hero.

Tails smiled. "Why don't we get some chili dogs on the way home?"

Sonic's ears perked up. "You got it! Let's go get those gardening tools for ya."

Tails nodded and led Sonic into the flower shop. The sweet aroma of nature and allergies punched Sonic right in the face, and he immediately held himself back from sneezing. Majority of the time spent consisted of him quietly following Tails around, looking at some flowers every now and then, while Tails searched for the tools he needed.

...

"Hey, Tails, I have a question," Sonic said as him and Tails got off the train that was stopped at Mystic Ruins Train Station. He carried a bag and half of a chili dog, while Tails held two bags.

"You're really talkative today," Tails commented.

Sonic shrugged. "Last one, I promise. Why roses?"

Tails arched a brow. "What do you mean?"

They walked down the flight of stairs leading to the land. "Why did you pick roses? Of all the flowers you could have picked, you chose roses and you seem to care about them."

"Why does it matter?" Tails retorted as they headed towards the hill where his workshop stood.

"Just answer the question."

The young genius shook his head. "I don't know... They were just appealing to me. It's like I told Knuckles, they give me good vibes," he responded.

They were soon approaching the workshop. "And do they remind you of something? Or... More specifically, _someone_?"

Tails stopped on his tracks and stared at Sonic with large, azure eyes. "Y-Yeah... How'd you know? It's like they reflect someone really..."

"Really caring?"

Tails couldn't describe his astonishment, but before they could proceed with the topic, he looked to his home and suddenly dropped his bags, crying out, "My garden!"

He bolted to the front porch and fell to his knees, his hands lifting up the shredded remains and dark petals of his destroyed roses. Sonic easily caught up to him and gasped at the sight. "What happened?" The stems and ripped petals were scattered all around his feet, and for some reason, the sight made him sick to his stomach.

Orbot and Cubot soon ran outside of the house. "Oh, Tails, we deeply apologize for all of this!" Orbot cried, slowly approaching their creator. "We were cleaning up, as you told us to, and Cubot accidentally mishandled the lawn mower."

Cubot rubbed the metal on its head. "I'm so sorry, boss. I thought I knew how to use it properly."

A rare, angered look appeared on Sonic's face, and he glared at the two robots. "How could you be so careless with something so important to him?!" he yelled. "You better–!"

"Sonic," Tails lifted a hand, interrupting his friend. "It's fine, it was just an accident." Sonic watched as Tails stood up with different eyes; they seemed apathetic, now. "Besides, they're just flowers. It's not that important at all."

Sonic's eyes widened and he tried to speak, but only ended up sputtering his words as he collected his thoughts. Tails turned to his robots, saying, "You two can start to clean up the mess here." They cheerfully agreed and immediately went to work, while Tails walked inside.

"Tails, wait!" Sonic called out, chasing him inside. "Why did you tell them that it wasn't important? We were just discussing five minutes ago how those roses remind us of someone. Something is really off."

Tails arched a brow. "I never said that."

Sonic's jaw dropped in shock and he threw his hands into the air. "What?! Yes you did! On our way from the train, we were saying–"

"Sonic, you've been bantering about nonsensical stuff all day today." Tails began to examine is friend up and down. "Are you feeling okay? Should I run some tests?"

Sonic the Hedgehog was officially scared, now. Has his best friend lost his mind?

"...You know what?" Sonic started slowly up the stairs, "I'm just gonna go take a nap."

"Alright, if you need anything, just tell me. Maybe we can watch a movie if you feel any better."

Sonic didn't even respond; he ran into his room and locked the door behind him, taking in short, heavy breaths. His hands were trembling, and the first thing they did was reach for the journal on his desk and flip it open.

_Nothing feels right anymore. Tails is acting beyond weird. These feelings I've been having, those reminiscing dreams of Eggman… This all must be his doing, because something, everything is wrong._

_I'm gonna talk to Knuckles tomorrow. Hopefully he'll be helpful in some way. If not, then I'll be on my own without a clue of what to do._

–_Sonic the Hedgehog_

* * *

**A/N: Please leave any feedback you have in the review section! I only wish to continue if I know that people are enjoying this.**

**I apologize for any grammatical errors; I write my fanfiction on my phone at three in the morning lmao.**

**And I know someone's probably gonna point out flaws in their characters or the setting, but idek I'm just going along with it so if I get a fact or two incorrect then please tell me! ; ;**

**Also, Sonic having a journal is just a cute headcanon I have lol.**


	2. Never Get There

**A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews last chapter, I really appreciate it! (Also, just an fyi, if there are any grammar mistakes in Sonic's journal entries, I did that on purpose simply for his character.) **

**And as always, apologies to any other actual grammatical errors.**

* * *

II—Never Get There

_May 9th_

_Tails is the biggest smartass ever. Today he modified the Tornado to be capable of doing all these fancy shmancy air tricks and loops and stuff. Screw that guy, I'll dismantle that damn plane while he sleeps tonight._

–_Sonic the Hedgehog_

* * *

_May 11th_

_Today I sat in the valley and watched the clouds._

–_Sonic The Hedgehog _

* * *

_May 12th_

_I feel like something's wrong... But I can't put my finger on it._

–_Sonic The Hedgehog_

* * *

_May 15th_

_Orbot and Cubot are creepy._

–_Sonic The Hedgehog_

* * *

Sonic woke up the next morning at the same time as always to the same bright lights emitting through the window, and the same birds chirping outside. He sighed and hopped out of bed, deciding to get the day over with again.

He was definitely bored; was nothing exciting going to happen in his life anymore without Eggman? Should he go out of his way to look for trouble? He's Sonic the Hedgehog; his young life shouldn't be reduced to this!

The blue hedgehog glanced at the journal on his desk, yearning to flip it open to page one—which he first wrote in over five years ago—and reread everything he'd written in his life up to this point, reminiscing over the good 'ol days.

However, that was forbidden; Sonic promised himself from the moment he received that book on his twelfth birthday that he would never look back at what he wrote (whether it is as far as one page or to the beginning) until he turned eighteen. He longed for that moment to come so that he could finally frolic through every single day of his childhood, or just about every day. The pages were large and plentiful, and he always took up every inch or empty corner, writing small along the lines so that he can keep progressing in it until his eighteenth birthday. Thankfully, he still had a lot more pages to go, so he wasn't worried at all about running out.

_'Only one more month,'_ he thought to himself excitedly.

After he went through the usual morning routines, which included taking a quick jog around the countryside, he strolled through Tails' workshop and found the fox fixing some parts on the Tornado's engine.

"Hey, Bud. What's up?" Sonic greeted.

Tails grunted as he pulled his head out of the engine slot, dust riddled on his cheeks. "Ugh, I never realized how filthy it was in here!" he grumbled. "Sonic, could you run downtown for me and get some cleaning supplies at the auto shop?"

"Sure," he agreed without hesitation. "I needed something to do, anyways."

Tails nodded. "Okay, and the store owner's name is Tony, so tell him that Tails needs to clean the Tornado's engine and he'll know exactly what to give you."

Sonic winked with a, "Gotcha!" and zoomed out.

In the front yard, he stopped for a moment to take a look at the overview of Mystic Ruins—that's the one sight he'll never get bored of. Out of the corner of his eye, however, he saw Orbot and Cubot carrying large garbage bags from the past week, struggling to keep it lifted. A part of Sonic wanted to help them, but at the same time, he did _not_ like Orbot and Cubot.

...Then again, Tails would appreciate it.

"Here, let me help you," Sonic offered, taking some of the bags from them without warning.

"M-Mr. Sonic!" Orbot yelped in surprise. "It's fine, we can handle it–"

Sonic cut him off with a scoff. "Yeah, sure you can," he sneered, rolling his eyes.

Orbot grabbed the bottom of the back and tried to pull it back. "We're programmed to do the work for you. We can handle it...!"

"Hey, let go!" Sonic growled, yanking the bag back so hard that the bottom ripped open, and out poured rotten fruits, old, leftover pizza, and... Dead roses.

Sonic let out a short gasp and fell back into the grass. "The roses..." he whispered under his breath, bringing his hand to rub the side of his head. Flashes of bright memories went through his head under seconds, but they were too fast for even _him_ to comprehend. "Why did I...?"

"I-I sincerely apologize, Mr. Sonic!" Orbot rapidly scrambled to pick up the wilted flower remains and move it out of his sight. "Why don't you go inside, and I'll make you some tea–"

"Oh, no, no..." Sonic kept muttering before racing in the other direction to get as far away from the workshop as he could. He stopped briefly deep into the woods and kneeled down by a creek to stare at his reflection in the shimmering water.

_'I was supposed to talk to Knuckles almost a week ago about all these strange occurrences, and our forgetfulness... But now, I'm turning into Tails! I completely forgot about how urgent this is!'_ He dipped his hands into the water and rubbed his face.

"This can't happen anymore," he said to himself fiercely. "I will get to the bottom of this."

Sonic rose to his feet and quickly hurried off to find the shrine of the Master Emerald, hoping that Knuckles would be doing his duty and not off somewhere smooching with Rouge.

To Sonic's hope, and dismay, Knuckles was doing both.

"Ahem," Sonic cleared his throat when he arrived at the shrine, getting the attention of the couple sitting together on the steps in front of the Master Emerald.

At the sound of his voice, Knuckles shoved Rouge away. "O-Oh, Sonic, hey!" he choked out. "I... Fancy seeing you here!"

Sonic lowered his eyelids at his friend. "Uhuh... Can we talk about something?" he asked in a serious tone.

Knuckles was taken back by Sonic's peculiar tone and nodded. "Sure, what's up?"

The hedgehog shifted his eyes towards Rouge, and emphasized, "Alone."

She blinked in surprised, but smiled slyly as she stood up. "Sure thing, Big Blue. Just don't keep him for too long, okay?" she said with a wink as she took a walk around the shrine, far enough out of earshot from them.

"So..." Knuckles sighed as he gestured for Sonic to sit next to him, to which he obliged. "Is everything alright? You look distressed, and you _never_ come to me for help."

Sonic shrugged. "I guess... Chaos, I don't even know where to begin." He paused for a moment. "Knuckles, do you ever get this constant feeling like something's wrong? Like nothing makes sense about our current way of living?"

Knuckles squinted his eyes. "What are you trying to say?"

"There's nothing to do here! What happened to Eggman, Knuckles?!" Sonic grabbed the echidna's shoulders. "This isn't normal! Tails even forgot who Eggman was for a second, and those robots of his are freaky!"

"Whoa, whoa!" Knuckles shoved Sonic off of him. "You need to calm down! You just sound bored, and that makes sense for someone like you." He dusted himself off. "It sounds like you're having a panic attack."

_"Sonic, I think you might have anxiety."_

Sonic shook his head. "This is serious, Knuckles! Tails is forgetting important stuff that happened in the past, and the thing with the roses, and the robots, and–"

Knuckles groaned. "Tails is a boy genius, and now that he has more time to himself to build his own inventions, his mind is more occupied."

_"You should try breathing."_

Sonic tried taking in a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down. "Knuckles, do you feel like someone is missing from our group of friends?"

"Probably; our squad is _huge_."

"No, I mean someone who was _really_ close to us... A girl, maybe."

Knuckles was quiet for a second, but nothing came to his mind, and he didn't want Sonic to overreact again if he said no. "Listen," he placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder, "if it'll make you feel any better, why don't we have Rouge escort us to Eggman's base to check up on him?" Sonic looked up at him and he smiled. "Maybe you can convince him to fight like old times."

"I guess it's worth a shot..." Sonic muttered. Then suddenly, his ears perked up.

"Alright then, let's get this over with," Knuckles announced as he hopped from the steps. Just as he was about to call Rouge over, who was sitting in a pile of dandelions, Sonic's watch started beeping, signaling a call from Tails.

Sonic pressed a button on the side of it. "What's up, Tails?"

_"Sonic, where'd you go? Why are you at the Emerald Shrine?"_ Tails' voice came over on a small speaker.

Sonic shot Knuckles a look for an excuse, but he just shrugged. "Uh, I... Had to talk to Knuckles..." He noticed Rouge join them and wrap an arm around her partner's arm. "...About how I think he's too good for Rouge." Rouge scowled and glared at the hedgehog, but he just threw his arms up in a dramatic shrug, symbolizing he came up with any excuse he could on the spot.

_"Oh, alright."_ Tails chuckled. _"Just hurry up and get my supplies, okay?"_

"Sure, no proble–" Sonic suddenly froze, and his eyes widened. "Tails... How do you know where I am?"

Knuckles and Rouge stared at Sonic in confusion, and there was a long pause before the fox calmly responded, _"There's a tracking device on the watch, back from when you were put in danger sometimes."_

"But why are you using it to track me now?! You've never tracked me before!" Sonic shouted. Knuckles was taken back by Sonic's sudden outburst, but he himself was just as shocked by Tails' strange action. There was nothing but white noise coming from the other end, and after a minute, Sonic decided the phone call was over and he hung up.

Sonic started to breathe heavily and he ran his hand through his quills. "Knuckles, why is Tails tracking me?! Is he listening to my conversations, too?!" he yelled, quickly ripping the watch off of his wrist and throwing it into the concrete grounds of the shrine, shattering the device.

"Sonic, chill out!" Knuckles said over him, raising his hands cautiously.

"What's going on?" Rouge said, staring at Sonic in shock.

Sonic sucked in more air and began to pace in circles, muttering, "Calm down, Sonic..." to himself over and over again.

Knuckles decided to give him a moment and turned to Rouge. "Babe, can you take us to Eggman's base? Sonic is unsatisfied with how he's been gone for a while, so we wanna pay him a visit, and you probably know the best ways in."

Rouge's face scrunched up. "That sounds stupid... But alright, I guess. It's not like we're doing anything," she replied, walking over to Sonic to gather the details.

Knuckles stared into the distance thoughtfully. "Huh... Yeah, I guess we haven't been doing much of anything, lately..."

* * *

Eggman's lair was constantly moving from place to place, so Rouge took them to the train station. "The last time we saw him, he was relocated in Pumpkin Hill, so it's easier if we take the train for now," she told them as she checked the schedule in the station.

"Look, there's a train leaving in a few minutes," Sonic pointed out, rushing around the platform to find the train. "Right here, come on!"

Knuckles only looked to Rouge and shrugged, quickly following the hedgehog. After jumping through the closing doors, Rouge and Knuckles sat down, but Sonic remained standing. Five minutes into the ride, he began to tap his foot impatiently.

Rouge leaned over to Knuckles and whispered, "Is he alright?" The echidna simply shrugged at her and rested his head on her shoulder for a smooth, twenty-minute ride. Rouge decided to rest her eyes as well, since Sonic would probably wake them up.

Sonic let out a sigh as the train moved along, his hand tightly gripping the pole. All he wanted was answers to who was missing in his life...

* * *

_"I knew you'd be here," he said as he approached her in a field of white lilies that glowed in the moonlight, his left hand hiding behind his back._

_She looked up at him from where she sat and stuck her tongue out at him. "Guess you know me too well," she replied. Her hair was messy and dirty, as well as her wrinkled dress, and her eyes were tired and dried up from tears._

_His appearance was just as disheveled as hers. He sighed and sat down next to her. "You alright?" he asked, trying to be compassionate._

_"Yeah, I'll be okay. I thought about it, and we'll all look back on this day and laugh," she answered, her jade eyes staring far out to the view of the valleys from where they sat. She then huffed out, "Eggman sucks."_

_A small grin formed on his lips. "Yeah, you got that right. Hey, at least this will be a memorable day for you."_

_She let out a long sigh and threw herself back into the flowers, and the petals her body ruffled had broken off, fluttering everywhere and creating a beautiful sight. "Fighting robots that are trying to kidnap me and getting myself all tired and messy today wasn't exactly my idea of a casual evening, but..." She turned her head to meet his eyes. "At least I got to spend it with you, and everyone else, Sonic."_

_He smiled and revealed his hidden hand to pass her a small, thin, blue box wrapped up with a bow. "Happy birthday, _ _ _."_

* * *

**"The train will be arriving at Mystic Ruins Train Station in a few moments."**

The voice over the loudspeaker grabbed everyone's attention instantly. Rouge and Knuckles woke from their slumber while Sonic snapped out of his thoughts and looked up from the ground. "Huh?"

"Did we accidentally miss it?" Rouge yawned, stretching her legs.

"That can't be, I didn't fall asleep," Sonic said. "I was just lost in my thoughts..."

"And you probably didn't hear the train stop," Knuckles interjected, rolling his eyes. "Nice going, Sonic."

"Guys, I swear, I didn't hear or feel or see the train stop!" the hedgehog argued.

"Maybe we just got on the wrong train. After all, we were rushing," Rouge suggested.

"Then let's find the next train to Pumpkin Hill, make sure it's going there, and this time, let's pay attention," said Knuckles, stepping off of the train and walking over to the large schedule board. He then pointed to the bottom of the page. "Right here, it's leaving in ten minutes. Can we all confirm?"

Both Rouge and Sonic studied the schedule to make sure he was correct before nodding. They stood waiting for the train for a few more minutes before it arrived, and they quickly departed to their destination once again. This time, they hogged the window seats since the cart was empty and watched the world pass them by. As the train neared the outskirts of the Mystic Ruins/Station Square area, the blue sky began to melt into a soft violet color with some patches of magenta and blue clouds, and the ground slowly turned into glass in a gridded structure, reflecting the sky above them. The area around them was barren, not a single object or piece of land in sight.

None of this seemed to bother them.

"Oh, I can see the mountains from here!" Rouge perked up, pointing at the window towards the silhouette of the Pumpkin Hill mountains, which was still quite a distance from them.

Sonic leaned back on the pole and sighed in relief, relaxing his shoulders a little bit. He started thinking about how to approach Eggman, or what to say to him and the person he stole from their memories. They'd be there soon...

**"The train will be arriving at Station Square Train Station in a few moments."**

Knuckles leapt from his seat. "What?!"

"That's not possible!" yelled Sonic, running over to the window and looking outside to see the train nearing the Pumpkin Hill area, but dashing straight past it instead of into it. "Is this some kind of sick joke?!"

"Who the hell is conducting this train?" Rouge growled, storming over to the doors of the cart and opening them, into the next. The boys followed her through the doors, one by one until they arrived at the locomotive cab. Inside, she saw the backs of the conductor and the locomotive engineer, and she grabbed their shoulders and shoved them around to face her. "Hey! What are you– AH!" she shrieked, jumping back. Knuckles and Sonic gasped and took a step back from them.

The faces of two people controlling the train were distorted with colors of red and yellow, swishing around like a watercolor painting. With no reaction, they slowly turned back round and continued on with their work, as though nothing just happened.

The three of them instantly high-tailed out of the cart without question, slamming the door behind them. "...What... What was that?" Rouge muttered, breaking the silence between them.

"I told you something freaky is going on, but nobody believed me!" Sonic panicked, running his hands through his quills. "I need to get to the bottom of this! It feels like my head isn't on straight...!"

"Shh, Sonic," Knuckles hushed him. He was facing the rest of the passengers on the train, but moved his hand behind him to place on his friend's arm. "You're making a scene..."

Sonic and Rouge looked up to see that the few people on this cart were staring at them, but their faces were distorted in the same way that the conductor's and engineer's were; there was a mix of so many colors, yet it was like staring into a void.

"Chaos..." the blue blur whispered under his breath. The train then stopped, and Rouge shoved the boys out of the cart as fast as possible, nearly tripping over them.

However, outside was no different. The people standing and waiting on the platform all had their distorted faces turned to them, staring in absolute silence.

"Did... Did they always look like this?" Rouge asked quietly.

"I think so," Sonic answered in the same low tone. "But I never noticed it until now. Why haven't they done this before?"

Knuckles never took his eyes off of them. "Maybe it's because now we can see it, and they _know_ we can... Let's stay calm and walk out of here; act like everything is normal," he ordered.

They decided to follow his lead. Knuckles began to make his way towards the exit of the station, Sonic and Rouge following very closely behind, and one by one the distorted-faced people began to turn back around to their own business again. Within seconds, the atmosphere felt less tense, almost back to the way it normally was.

Once outside, the three huddled together in a secluded area to make sure nobody was watching them. "What did I tell ya?" Sonic said. "This reeks of Eggman!"

"Nothing makes sense right now," Rouge said shakily, placing a hand on her head. "First of all, we couldn't get to Pumpkin Hill, and second of all, _those people_..." They peered into the streets to see that every civilian contained the same terrifying faces. "Have they always been like that? How have we never noticed?"

"That's what I was trying to explain," Sonic continued, trying to gather the thoughts in his head. "This... This life we're living, this world–it makes us forget things, or it gives us the illusion that we're in a peaceful world! That's why Tails forgot who Eggman for a second," he paused to turn to Knuckles, "and I was going to come talk to you about the situation a week ago, but I just forgot it ever happened, as if everything was normal!"

"You're coming up with crazy speculations, Sonic," the echidna stated. "You know what I think? I think that Eggman's woken up from his slumber and did something to these people to try and scare us, and maybe he even did something to Tails."

"Then how do you explain the train zooming right past Pumpkin Hill?"

Knuckles opened his mouth to retort, but couldn't find the words to argue back. "Uh, maybe…"

"Sonic, you're the fastest creature alive," Rouge spoke. "Go run to Pumpkin Hill right now, and come get us if you find any means of transportation." Sonic was hesitant, but he nodded and sped away without getting the attention of the "other people."

He would be able to get to Pumpkin Hill, right? Of course he would, he has run all over the world before. Maybe Knuckles was right; Eggman probably did something to the train to lure Sonic in all by himself and ambush him.

Sonic arrived at the outskirts again, and the setting began to change to the abnormal grid-glass ground and purple sky, but he treated it as though it was normal. As he kept moving, he felt the natural feeling of freedom flow through his mind and body, which was something he felt when he always ran. It consumed him, and made him forget about his surroundings, his destination, and everything troubling him. Sonic only felt the need to run and let his mind wander free so that he could enjoy every moment of it…

And when he came back to his senses, he had arrived at Station Square.

Sonic stood there in shock, his eyes widened and his mouth hanging open. He saw Rouge and Knuckles standing around in an alley, unaware that he had returned without intending to.

"This can't be happening…" Sonic muttered under his breath, mortified by what just happened. He abruptly turned on his heel and bolted in the direction of Pumpkin Hill once more. "Are we simply trapped here?!" he yelled out as he entered the barren glass land again, his eyes locked on the shadows of Pumpkin Hill. He would not stop or take his focus off of his destination this time, because all that mattered at this point was finding _her._

Yet still, the bigger the mountains grew, the hazier his mind became, and the second he blinked, he was standing in Station Square once again, this time in the sights of Knuckles and Rouge. Sonic stared at them with a blank expression, and they stared back in confusion.

"Sonic, what happened?" Knuckles questioned, cautiously stepping forward.

The world's proclaimed hero slowly fell to his knees and raised his hands to grab the sides of his head, giving no heed to the shouts of his friends.

They were trapped within the boundaries of Station Square and Mystic Ruins.

* * *

Amy felt like dying.

"You're getting better, girly!" Eggman's voice laughed over a loud speaker in the corner of the metallic room. "Keep at it, and my army will be perfected in no time!"

Her body ached and her mind was about to explode, the voice in her head screaming at her to give in to the comforting arms of death.

"Visbot-01, test out your sneak attack techniques!" the doctor commanded to the robot inside the room with Amy as he watched the fight from a tinted window.

Her bruised eye was closed and throbbing, blood escaped from her lips, and the rest of her figure was covered in scrapes, cuts, and bruises. She was nothing but a punching bag for this man and his machines.

The robot, which was no bigger than the doctor himself, was designed for perfection. Its structure was similar to that of E-102 Gamma, an ancient project of Eggman's, except it was built thinner and harder, and painted in a shiny silver color, like a brand new car. The damn contraption had wheels for feet, giving it incredible speed and making it impossible for her to dodge.

She heard the beeping sound of its glowing blue eyes targeting her, and processing a plan of attack. She growled and clutched onto her hammer, still willing to fight if it was the last thing she ever did.

Eggman wouldn't kill her; he _needed_ her. These robots he was building were embedded with a mimicking program—He threw her into an arena with them a few days a week for them to attack and her to defend herself, and they studied her every move, every defense and attack, so that they could improve and become the perfect fighter. These experiments and trainings have been going on for so long that they're able to spot all her weak points and take advantage, and slowly become stronger than her to the point where she can't even get close to them. She fights harder because that's the type of person Amy is; she never gives up, but she knows that once this is all over, and Eggman feels that they've reached their peak, he will unleash his army upon the world and probably dispose of her.

It was mortifying. She's helping it, yet she has no choice but to defend herself.

Visbot-01 zipped around behind Amy to perform a sneak attack, as its master commanded, but she whirled her hammer around in time to give it a good knocking on its head, pushing it away from her. Eggman, who was safe and sound in his little observation room, placed a hand on his chin. "Ohoho, hmm... Impressive, girl." He smirked. "But it won't happen again."

Visbot-01 immediately lashed out at Amy and knocked its hard, metal fist straight into her stomach. Her vision went hazy, but she felt the sharp pain jolt through her body, and blood spewed from her mouth. She cried out and collapsed onto the ground, violently coughing and wheezing.

"Already throwing in the towel, eh?" Eggman called out with an amused tone. "Well, I suppose you can't do much more with those broken ribs." Amy screamed out in pain, releasing all of her anger and sorrow, and Eggman simply rolled his eyes under his glasses. "Don't waste your breath, Amy. Sonic isn't here anymore, and nobody else is coming to rescue you."

Yes, she definitely wanted to die.

* * *

**A/N: I've started college, so I can't promise frequent updates atm but the amount of Boom!Sonamy I've been seeing lately is motivating me so much, is anyone else watching the show?**

**Anyway, Eggman's robots weren't included in my original idea, but I thought of it while editing this chapter and it will actually extend the length of this story, so that's cool I guess. Would anyone want me to draw the design I had in mind of it? (I have to draw the cover photo anyway lol.)**

**I'm sorry if this chapter was really boring or confusing, shit will get laid out eventually, but I hope this wasn't overbearing lol.**


	3. Sugar and Cream

**A****/N: a few of you have already figured out what's going on lol and that's gucci, I didn't wanna make this a headache or anything.**

**But thank you all so much for the reviews last chapter, it made me super happy :^)**

**Chapters are also gonna start having more flashbacks, yay!**

**THIS IS SUCH A BORING CHAPTER BTW I'M SO SORRY RIP**

* * *

III—Sugar and Cream

Sonic laid still in his bed on his back, with his arms hanging over the sides. He stared coldly at the ceiling, trying to piece together everything that was happening, but it only made his migraine worse. Tails had called him to come downstairs a few minutes ago to have some pizza, but the hedgehog only answered with silence.

After his chaotic experience earlier with Knuckles and Rouge, they agreed to rest their heads for the time being and meet up again tomorrow to figure out some sort of game plan. Sonic made sure to emphasize that they could not forget any of this by all means, and to constantly replay the events over in their heads.

As of now, Sonic was firmly set on the idea that Tails was being controlled or something, because this wasn't the Tails that he knew–

Sonic sat up.

_'What if this isn't Tails at all?'_

Sonic hopped up from his bed and realized that the room was dark, and he'd been laying there for probably hours. He shrugged it off and dashed downstairs to find Tails snacking on ice cream and watching cartoons. Thankfully, Orbot and Cubot were nowhere to be found, so the blue hedgehog plopped down right next to the boy genius on the couch. Tails' eyes narrowed in concern as he glanced at Sonic. "Hi? You feeling okay, bro?" he asked him.

Sonic pulled off a shit-eating grin. "Never felt better! Why?"

"Well, I was calling you a few times before for pizza and you didn't answer. Not to mention you also came home without a word and just locked yourself in your room." He frowned. "This isn't really like you, Sonic."

"You know me too well, don't you?"

Tails sat up in concern. "You can tell me anything, you know. Is something bothering you?" Sonic didn't answer for a while, and Tails sighed. "I feel like you've been really annoyed and upset with me lately…"

Sonic nearly rolled his eyes, but settled for slouching on the couch. "I think I miss Eggman."

He immediately glanced at Tails for a reaction, and as expected, Tails looked severely confused. "Uh..." the fox grunted, his eyes scrunching up. "Who...?"

Sonic leapt from the couch and threw his arms in the air. "How?!" he yelled. "How do you forget Dr. Eggman, the evil bald genius that constantly tried to make our lives miserable?"

Tails flinched and retreated back. "Sonic, calm down..."

"First this, and then the whole thing with the roses! What's next, Tails? Are you gonna forget who I am, too?!"

The hedgehog was heaving, and once he settled down, he noticed the sadness in Tails' eyes. "Sonic..." the boy genius started quietly. "I... I think there's something wrong with _you_. You've been so distressed over nothing lately, and you're still hung up over those silly flowers."

Sonic's arms slumped and he looked down on the floor. He should've known it was pointless. "Just... Never mind," he mumbled, seating himself on the couch. "Forget about it," he finished, wanting to laugh at the irony in those words.

Tails stared hard at his best friend for a long period of time before jumping up and dashing to the kitchen. After a few minutes, he ran back in with a glass of a strawberry smoothie and he handed it to Sonic.

"What's this?"

"I had Orbot and Cubot look up recipes to making cool drinks. I was hoping you could try it while we ate dinner together, but you didn't come down." Tails smiled. "At least I still remembered to give it to you, right?"

Sonic couldn't fight back the smile that tugged on his muzzle. "Thanks, bud," he said, taking the smoothie and chugging down half of the cool drink.

"Listen," Tails sighed, "I haven't completely forgotten about Eggman. I'm just so used to this new lifestyle that when you bring him up, it throws me off. I'm sorry if I'm worrying you," he placed a hand on Sonic's shoulder, "but you're clinging onto the past. Try to let it go."

The latter broke eye contact. He wished he could trust and believe Tails' comforting words, but there's already so much that even the little genius doesn't know.

_May 16th_

_I'm writing down everything that happened today on a bunch of sticky notes I posted all over the walls so that I won't forget it when I wake up __tomorrow. I can't write it in here, I'm not allowed to look back until I'm eighteen... Chaos, I feel stressed out._

_The second I wake up, I'm heading straight to the Emerald Shrine to discuss our next plan of action. We'll find an answer to this, I swear._

_—Sonic the Hedgehog_

* * *

Amy didn't bother to lift her head when she heard the prison doors hiss open—she knew exactly who was coming in just by listening to the footsteps. Eggman approached her cell and peered at her through the electric bars, smirking. "Healing well?" he asked her.

She turned her head the other way in response, a dark scowl on her lips. Her right eye, along with parts of her body, were still bruised up, but Eggman always had a few medical bots ready to take care of any serious injuries, such as broken ribs or internal bleeding. The procedures were painful, but, at this point, so common that she was used to it.

"That little tough act of yours isn't going to last forever, you know," he pointed out. "When you first arrived here, you were kicking and yelling twenty-four seven; now, your spirit is dying. Why not just give in and let me make you a part of my army?"

"Go to hell!" Amy snapped, backing away further into the corner of her cell. Eggman merely chuckled at her pathetic attempt to scare him. She knew that he was right, and at this point, he was just slowly breaking her down until she gave the consent for him to test on her.

Still, she needed _something_ to keep her holding on longer—just until she figured out how to escape.

She watched him pull out a small monitor from his pocket, and she gulped, already knowing what it meant. "He must have had really strong feelings for you, didn't he?" the doctor asked suspiciously.

Amy blinked and looked away again. "I don't know what you're talking about–"

"Don't play stupid with me, girl!" he barked, and she jumped back in fear. He studied the visuals displayed on the monitor, which looped a video of Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge sitting on a train. "Sonic's beginning to realize that he's not in the real world anymore, and it's all your fault."

For the first time in forever, Amy's eyes sparkled. "Really?!" she yelled excitedly.

"I underestimated the brain of that boy-genius Tails; you somehow slipped back into his memory, and it spread like an infection to Sonic. He still doesn't know who you are, but he's already inspected deep enough to realize that there's no escaping the area he's confined to, and he knows that someone is missing."

"I knew there was hope!" she exclaimed, slowly attempting to stand. "You're in for it now, Egghead! Sonic's going to get out, and when he sees what you've done to me...!" The pink hedgehog paused to realize that Eggman still had a very brash look on his face. "...Why are you telling me this?" she asked quietly.

"Because I know you'll get your hopes up just for them to be crushed, and that makes it easier for me to break you."

"They won't get crushed!" she argued naïvely. "Sonic's gonna escape and–!"

"It's impossible to escape from the inside, Amy. You already know this." He looked at his monitor again and swiped it to the side to reveal a picture of Tails lounging around with Orbot and Cubot. "Besides, I sent those two metal contraptions in there to keep Tails' brain in check and to make sure Sonic wakes up every morning not remembering what happened the day before."

"What?" she gasped. "How can you control him like that?"

The evil scientist smirked. "Remember the little incident we had before all this? It was the last time you all saw me before I went into hiding for some years..."

Amy's eyes widened, and she went to grab the bars. "You can't–! AHH!" Upon contact, the metal sent her a shock of electrocution, which threw her back into the wall. She huffed and tried to catch her breath, opening her eyes to glare at Eggman.

Eggman's laughter echoed through the chamber. "Just give in, already, Amy!" He grinned widely. "You've all lost."

...

The nights were always cold and dark in that cell. Frequently, Amy would be startled awake by the thunderous moans and creaks made by the pipes that constructed the ceiling. Other times, she'd have nightmares, or simply just feel too anxious to sleep at all. She'd constantly stare off into the distance and trap herself within her own mind, pondering about all the things she did wrong and how she could have prevented this mess from occurring in the first place, despite acknowledging that this wasn't her fault. Yet, in the end, she always somehow came to the conclusion that everything was ultimately her fault for being too weak.

The nights were painful; she rarely got sleep. However, there was _one_ thing that she looked forward to at night every now and then.

"Rose," a hushed voice whispered in the dark.

Amy shot up from where she laid and crawled over to the cell bars, while still keeping her distance from them. "Shadow," she sighed.

Although it was too dark to see, Shadow could tell from her relieved tone that she was smiling, just like all the other times he came to visit. "How are you holding up?" he asked with concern, doing a checkup on her well-being like always.

She shrugged, even though it wasn't visible, and mumbled, "Same as always."

He released a long breath from his nose. "I wish I could take you away from here. I'm sorry–"

"Shadow," Amy interrupted, "you don't have to keep apologizing for this. I know that Eggman is tracking you every second of the day. After all, you're the only one left who would be willing to break me out."

He glared into the darkness. After he found out what that psychotic scientist had done to the heroes, the spared Shadow settled for not caring about the future of the world, nor getting involved... That was until he heard what the Doctor was doing to the captive Amy. At the very least, he owed her some sort of company whenever he was able to sneak in through one of the outside vents.

"Even if we did escape, he would hunt us down with those despicable robots of his, and we'd be worse off than before..." Shadow growled.

"Yes... And you know that I can't abandon Sonic and everyone else." She spoke the next sentence with determination. "I will set them free, even if it kills me."

He sighed. "You're a fool, Rose."

"I know," she chuckled. "How is everything outside?"

"Nothing new," he answered. "Mobians are enjoying their time while they can before the world is thrown into Chaos."

"Ah..." They sat in silence for a while, but his presence alone always made Amy feel better. Sometimes, she felt the urge to reach out and hold his hand since it's been so long since she's had physical contact with something alive, and wasn't a piece of metal that sought out to kill her.

"How are those robots of his?" Shadow's voice cut through the dark.

Amy clenched her teeth. "They're awful... They're so powerful, I'm not sure if even you can take them down, especially if there will be armies of them." She shifted to sit on her knees. "Shadow, please," she begged, "help me."

The words stung him, especially since he knew exactly what she meant by that.

"I can't," he said firmly.

"That's a lie. You just _won't_," she retorted.

"You know I can't get involved," he argued, glaring in her direction. "I'll be caught acting on my own; I have no allies left. You're asking for the impossible."

"You have me!" the pink hedgehog persisted. "If you bust me out of here, we can find the system, remove the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald, and shut it down! Everyone will be freed if we work together!"

"Be realistic here, Amy!" he whispered harshly. "The second I set you free, security alarms will be set off, and we won't be able to fight off those machines. We also have no idea where the system is located, or how to properly shut it down for that matter, and it's not like we'll have the time to study up on it." He folded his arms over his chest as if he'd won the argument. "Just because the Doctor spared me from the fate of your friends doesn't mean that he sees me as an ally—quite the contrary, he views me as a potential threat, which is why I refuse to involve myself in anything. Sorry, but there's nothing I can help you with."

Amy angrily stared at the ground for a few moments and felt tears stinging the back of her eyes. "Then why are you even here?" she hissed.

Shadow scoffed. "Would you prefer me to stop visiting?"

"You don't make any sense," she sighed, shaking her head sadly. "I'm not gonna give up, though. No matter what you say, I need to save Sonic just as he's always saved me." She paused for a moment to see if he'd reply, in which he didn't, before continuing on. "Eggman told me that Sonic and Tails are starting to remember my existence... But he's doing something to manipulate their minds again!"

"I told you that it's impossible to save them," Shadow countered. "From our position, we can't do anything."

He was shocked when she smiled. "I know, but... I see it as a small glimpse of hope. This is a sign, I know it." Shadow didn't reply for some time, and Amy decided that the conversation was over. "I'm gonna try to rest," she finally said.

Suddenly, she felt a hand grab hers and she yelped, her heart freezing for a moment. Shadow had somehow slip his arm through the small opening on the bottom of the bars where food would be slid in.

"I'll be back again, soon. I promise," he said before releasing his grip and escaping through the vents.

Amy allowed her tears to fall, and, after a moment, she backed away to the wall to rest her head down on her stiff pillow. Wrapping a poorly-knitted blanket around her small body, she closed her eyes with one final thought.

_'Shadow is a confusing guy.'_

* * *

When Sonic woke up the next morning, he found the sun shining through his window at the perfect angle to illuminate his room. The light reflected off of the white walls, which was clear of any paint chip, hole, or posters. Sonic yawned and sat up, stretching his arms to the ceiling. With heartfelt grin, he put on his shoes and ran downstairs to find Tails making breakfast with Orbot and Cubot.

"Mornin', bro," Tails greeted. "How you feeling?"

"Like a million rings!" the fast hedgehog exclaimed, stretching his arms into the air. "I actually _might_ want to go test out that plane's loop-da-loops."

Tails laughed. "We can, but _somebody_ forgot to get my cleaning equipment," he said, pointing an accused finger at his older brother figure.

Sonic's expression dropped. "Oh, yeah, that's right," he grumbled before turning around. "I'll go do that quickly. What's the guy's name, again? Tony?"

"Yeah, but don't you want breakfast first?"

The latter grinned. "I'll be back in five minutes!" he assured before speeding off the property.

Orbot flipped over a pancake on the stove. "My, he's quite the energizer," he commented.

"Really different from you, Boss," Cubot added.

Tails smiled widely. "I know, but I really admire that about him. Sonic's my best friend, and nothing can change that."

* * *

As Sonic approached downtown Station Square, he began to slow down in order to prevent startling any other pedestrians. His head kept turning left and right, searching for the shop that Tails spoke of. He found it sitting at the end of the street and settled to walk with the crowd on the way there.

The crowd of the same people that had the same faces like always.

As he strode along, he began to wonder why he forgot to get the stuff for Tails yesterday. Sonic recalled deviating from his objective to go visit Knuckles at the Emerald Shrine, but why? What did they even talk about?

When he couldn't remember a good reason, he shrugged it off.

He entered the shop upon arrival, completed his task of locating Tony (a coy and ill-mannered middle-aged cat), and left with the items needed. As he continued down the street, he passed by the flower shop, and that was when he bumped into someone he did not expect to see at all.

"Mr. Sonic, is that you?"

Sonic blinked in surprise and grinned at the small rabbit and Chao standing before him. "Hey, Cream! I haven't seen you in forever."

Cheese released a joyful, "Chao!" and embraced the hedgehog, causing him to laugh.

Cream the Rabbit, standing before him in a beautiful orange sundress, returned one of her kind smiles. "And the same with you. How have you been?" she asked politely.

For some reason he didn't know, Sonic hesitated to answer that question. "I've... Been great, actually. It's a little boring nowadays, but life goes on." He rubbed his finger under his nose. "What about you, kiddo?"

"I've been fine as well, but I agree, the days are more quiet now. It's a little sad..." She wandered off and Sonic felt a familiar feeling in her words. "Anyway, I was just buying flowers for my house," she spoke again, gesturing towards the bouquet of roses in her arms.

Sonic stared at the flowers for a moment, and then looked up to scrutinize the random Mobians that passed them by, making the atmosphere a bit awkward. He then asked, "Cream, is there a specific reason you got roses above any other flower?"

The rabbit blinked in confusion and looked at the hedgehog. "Um... Sort of, but it's a bit embarrassing to say..." she replied shyly.

"They remind you of someone, don't they?" he pressed on, his voice slightly rising in volume.

Cream's eyes widened. "How did you know...?"

Sonic looked down at the ground in thought. "Cream, is it alright if I meet with you later on to talk about something important?"

She nodded. "Yes, you can come on over to my house whenever you want, Mr. Sonic."

He sighed in relief and placed a hand on her head. "Thanks, kiddo. See you in an hour," he said before running off.

Initiate panic attack.

Once Sonic was alone in a field of lilies he found somewhere in Mystic Ruins, he let out a frustrated growl and dropped himself onto the flowers. He sucked in air through his mouth and released it out of his nose, running a hand through his quills.

"What the hell!" he yelled out.

For the second or third time—possibly even more than that—he'd forgotten about everything. It wasn't until he caught sight of those beautiful roses that it all came swarming back into his head, causing him misery all over again. The worst part was that Knuckles and Rouge probably forgot too, and they wouldn't believe him if he tried to explain it all over again.

"What am I gonna do?" he groaned, covering his eyes with his hands.

But there was hope... Cream the Rabbit, a precious life placed in his world, is having the same peculiar thoughts that Sonic started off with. With that in mind, he had to protect her at all costs and make sure that she doesn't become a target of amnesia, as well. If he kept his composure, maybe they could both figure something out.

Together.

Sonic sighed for the millionth time that week and turned his head to the side to view the lilies that were spared from being crushed. This place seemed familiar, even comforting, to him...

Deciding that he had wasted enough time already, Sonic dashed off home to drop the stuff off for Tails. "That was much longer than five minutes," Tails said immediately, serving Sonic a plate of slightly warm breakfast foods. "Your food almost got cold. What took you so long?"

Time to pull some lies out of his ass; just what the charming Sonic the Hedgehog is known for.

After sugar-coating an explanation of how he ran into Cream and was going to go babysit her later on, he swallowed his cold breakfast and dashed off without a word from Tails.

* * *

On the way to Cream's house, Sonic stopped by the Emerald Shrine for a few moments to inquire about the events from the previous day. Knuckles gave Sonic a look of bewilderment, saying, "What do you mean? We just hung out in Station Square all day, right?"

Rouge wasn't present at the moment, so Sonic chose to not pursue the topic any further, fearing that he might lose his mind if Knuckles continued any longer.

With that, he arrived at Cream's home quickly, which seemed to take her by surprise when she opened the door. "Mr. Sonic!" she exclaimed. "I wasn't expecting you so early."

He laughed it off, and Cheese clung to his arm once again. "Sorry, I have a pretty bad sense of time."

She tilted her head to the side and smiled. "Quite honestly, I don't blame you," she started, stepping aside so that he could enter. "Lately, it feels like time has been still… For me, at least." She paused and turned around to look at him. "I'm sorry, I was about to start rambling. Would you like some tea?"

Cream always had a way of soothing one's aching soul. "I would, thanks," he said, taking a seat on the couch in the living room and watching her skip into the kitchen. "Where's your mom?"

"She actually just stepped out a few minutes ago," the rabbit called from the kitchen. "What about Tails? He couldn't make it?"

Sonic didn't reply for a few minutes, staring down at his hands intertwined together on his lap, and she did not persist until she returned with a tray of tea and small cookies. "Mr. Sonic?" she said gently, taking note of the distress in his eyes. "Is everything alright?"

He looked up at her when she finally sat down in the seat across from him, Cheese also planting himself on her lap. "Cream, can I trust you with something that you absolutely cannot tell anyone? And can you promise to remember everything that I tell you?" he asked in a serious tone.

Cream's face became firm and she nodded. "Of course. This sounds very serious."

"It is, and right now I feel like I can rely on you, and you only."

She frowned. "And Tails?"

He turned his head to the side. "Tails… Is acting different…" She gave him some time to gather his thoughts, and he looked back at her. "Can you continue on with what you were saying before about time?"

Cream and Cheese glanced at each other. "Well, it's nothing in particular… It's just that lately, time feels like it isn't changing. Everything feels the same, and worst of all, I'm losing touch with the people I care about." She elegantly took a sip from her teacup. "I haven't spoken to you guys in a long time. Most days, I stay here as if I'm expecting someone I love to come visit me, but nobody can come to mind, and I just feel… Lonely…"

Sonic's ears hung down at the miserable expression on her face. "I've been feeling a similar way lately, too," he said, sitting up straight. "You're not alone."

Her eyes met his. "Really?"

"It's not us, though." He lowered his eyes. "I know this might sound strange, but there's something wrong with this world—It's not real."

Cream glanced at him, and to his amazement, she didn't have a baffled face like Knuckles and Tails did. "I'd like to show you something," she said, quickly placing her teacup down and scurrying out of the room with Cheese in hand before Sonic could say anything.

Sonic sat there impatiently for a few minutes, his leg jumping up and down anxiously. Examining the room he was in, he noticed that there was a table filled with pictures of Cream and her mother throughout the years. In the center of the table was a small china vase with a single rose placed inside. The hedgehog wandered around the rest of the first floor to find a rose in a vase in every room.

Yes, Cream would definitely understand him.

"Mr. Sonic?" he heard her call, followed by the patter of footsteps down a staircase.

Cheese caught up to him in the dining room and dragged him back into the living room, where Cream was sitting on the couch with a photo album in her hands. "Sit next to me," the young girl said. Sonic obeyed and looked at the large book decorated in abstract and colorful shapes and patterns.

"What's that?" he asked.

"It's a photo album that I use to keep precious photos of the people I love…" She sighed. "Mr. Sonic, I know that you asked me about the roses for a specific reason."

Sonic turned his attention back to the rose in the room that was being kissed by the bright sun through the window. "I wanted to know if they remind you of someone," he stated.

"They do!" she exclaimed, her voice cracking. He gazed at her to find torment and heartbreak in her eyes, and she spoke so out of character. "I've always felt ridiculous for thinking about it, and I didn't want to tell anyone, but you _must_ feel the same way." She tightened her grip on her photo album. "I feel like there used to be someone so important to me, someone that I spent so much time with… I had a best friend, but now I can't remember who they are, or if they even exist, or if I just made them up in my head. I'm awful for forgetting someone that I claim to be so significant in my life!"

Sonic watched in agony as she tried to hard to not cry, but she couldn't hold it back. Cheese tried to comforting her by hugging her, and she pulled him close. "Cream, you're not awful," Sonic said, not sure how to cheer her up. "And you're not wrong, either. There's someone we love that is missing, and I'm trying to hard to figure out who."

"I know I'm not wrong," she said, her tears dying down. She opened up her book to the first page, consisting of photos she took of Vanilla in various scenarios. "I was feeling awful, so I tried to escape the thoughts by going through some old memories…" She began to flip the pages, showing about three to four photos on each. Most of them were of her, Cheese, and Vanilla; others were of her and her school friends, and Sonic caught quite a few of him and his heroic squad when they first met her. "But then, I came across this page…"

She turned to the next set of photos again, and Sonic was rendered speechless at the pictures displayed before him.

Cream was obviously in the photos next to someone—her arm would be wrapped around them, or they would be taking selfies—but the other person was smudged out, creating a terrifying and deformed look. Cream and Cheese were left perfectly in tact, but whoever did this to the book made sure that she, along with anybody else who saw the book, would never find out who is in that picture.

"Mr. Sonic." Cream's voice snapped him out of his trance and he looked at her, wide-eyed. "Don't be scared." She took his hand and weakly smiled. "We're going to find our missing friend, okay?"

For the first time in a while, Sonic had faith in someone else's words.

* * *

**A/N: ****I hope you guys know that I wanna reply to your reviews because they make me so happy but I'm really shy :') lmao**

**Thanks so much for reading so far, I've already started up the next chapter, so look forward to that soon! Until next time.**


	4. Lost and Found

**A/N: I finally drew a poor cover photo for this fic! You can check out the full res pic on the tumblr link in my bio!**

**Anyway, so sorry for the delay, I actually started working on later chapters, like around 8 or 9? But now we get to start the flashback chapters! So just as a heads up, most of this chapter will be flashback, but not italicized because it'll probably be annoying to read like that, so I'll make the transitions from past to present obvious. **

**Also, if you're into song suggestions, try listening to Divinity by Porter Robinson with this chapter! So with no further interruptions, let us begin!**

* * *

IV—Lost and Found

One of the two last days that Eggman had ever unleashed an attack on them was a day that Amy would never forget—possibly even treasure.

She was fifteen when she woke up that morning. Her birthday had been a few days prior to that, and although her original plans to spend the day with her friends were ruined by the Doctor, it all tied together very nicely with a sweet present from the hedgehog she'll always love: Sonic.

Amy smiled to herself as she got dressed, grabbing the gorgeous butterfly hairpin he gave to her and clipping it onto the side of her quills.

As she ate her breakfast, she thought over her agenda for the day—Tails felt bad for how horribly her fifteenth birthday went and wanted to make it up to her. Sonic was originally supposed to accompany them on a trip to the city, but he had some… _Issues_ to settle with another girl.

Amy sighed; she could tell that Sonic's been feeling like a mess over it lately, and while she had no right to dictate his life, she, along with his friends, could agree that this wasn't healthy for him. Sure, she was a little jealous, but she still cared about his happiness above that…

And he definitely wasn't happy.

Deciding to push those thoughts away for the day (since getting upset over it wouldn't solve anything), Amy skipped out the door and headed on over to Tail's workshop. When she arrived, she saw Sonic leaving at the same time, and she could tell he was trying to hide his anxiousness.

"Sonic!" she called, dashing over to the front door.

He turned around and braced himself in case she jumped on him, but she hadn't been doing much of that recently, and today was no exception. "Hey, Ames," he greeted with a crooked smile. His eyes wandered over to her hairpin and that smile turned into a smirk. "I see you like the present I gave you."

She giggled. "Of course, it's so pretty!" she said, showing off with a little twirl. "But I know you had some help with it. There's no way you could've picked this out on your own," she said, her eyes becoming playful.

"Hey! Give me some credit, will ya?" he scoffed, folding his arms over his chest. Amy opened her mouth to give a snarky reply, but suddenly his eyes softened. "Sorry, Amy. I'd love to stay and chat, but I really need to go."

She instantly frowned, and her eyes shifted in the other directed. "Oh… Yeah, that's right." She wasn't allowed to say anything about it to him since, technically, she wasn't supposed to know the details. Sonic only told Tails and Knuckles, and they would only briefly talk to her about it, so there were still things she was out of the loop with.

Sonic's face mirrored hers, and he sighed. "Amy, can we talk when I get back?" he asked, and she snapped her head up to peer at him. "I… I need some advice."

_'Hmph, it's about time he decided to trust me!' _she thought, but kept a straight face and nodded her head. "Of course."

He grinned brightly and ran off without another word. As she watched him leave, she released a heavy sigh, and couldn't help but feel excitement. Was this a sign of trust? Maybe he finally felt like he could open up his personal feelings to her.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Amy entered the workshop and found Tails standing from the couch to greet her. "I heard your voice and would've come outside, but I figured he was going to talk to you," the fox said.

Amy groaned and couldn't restrain an eye roll. "I love Sally, and I look up to her a lot, but if she doesn't _try_ to meet Sonic's needs, even after their little conference today, then she and I will need to have a _long_ discussion."

Tails' ears slumped and looked down. "I know, but what can we do?" They walked back outside together and onto the path to the train station to begin their fun day. "Knuckles and I keep telling Sonic that this isn't good for him, and that he needs to take action, but he's holding back and I don't know why."

The pink hedgehog sighed. "I wish they could just be happy together," she said in an airy tone.

Tails studied her for a moment before grinning and running ahead of her. "Race you to the train!" he shouted back at her.

"What?" Amy gasped before chasing after him. "Tails! No fair, you cheater!"

…

"Listen, smart guy, just because you're Sonic's closest friend doesn't mean that his speed rubbed off onto you," Amy told Tails, who was trying to catch his breath as they sat on the departing train.

Tails glowered at her, and she smirked, holding her head high. "Even with a head start, you still beat me," he huffed.

"That's right!"

He suddenly sighed and lowered his head, mumbling, "I'll never be able to catch up to him…"

Amy instantly frowned, feeling guilty for rubbing her victory in his face. "Hey, come on, Tails," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "You've got one thing that Sonic will never have, and that's a brain!"

Tails couldn't hold back his laughter. "That's mean!" he snickered.

"Am I wrong?"

As his chuckles died down, the fox playfully nudged her arm with his elbow. "So, where do you wanna go first?"

She looked out the window thoughtfully. "Hm… They just opened up a new roller coaster at Twinkle Park about a week ago, and I've been dying to check it out."

He grinned. "That sounds great, as long as you don't get too scared."

"Oh, shut it, you twerp."

…

The roller coaster was tall, fast, and only had a single bar to hold their bodies down. Amy and Tails bravely sat in the very front, but by the first drop, they were screaming and clinging onto each other for dear life. Once the ride ended, he had to nearly carry her off.

"Do you want me to get something to drink?" Tails asked her as he helped her sit down on a bench somewhere in the park.

Feeling fatigued, she plopped her head into her hands. "Oh, boy… How about a smoothie?" she suggested.

"Sure! Anything you want," he chirped before turning around and jogging off to a small snack stand a few meters away from her. As she watched the boy run off, she smiled softly and thought about how wonderful he was. She enjoyed spending quality time with Tails every once in a while, and she hoped that he would one day look up to her as he did to Sonic. He had a bright future ahead of him, and she wanted to be by his side just incase he ever needed someone to lean on.

After about ten minutes, Tails returned with a strawberry smoothie in one hand and a mango smoothie in the other. "Sorry, I wasn't sure which one you'd want," he said.

She shrugged and smiled. "I don't care, which do you prefer?"

"I don't care either."

"Then you pick one."

"But you're the birthday girl."

"Chaos, just give me the mango one," Amy huffed.

Tails chuckled as she stood up, taking the beverage from him. "Let's go walk around the city some more," the pink hedgehog proposed, and he nodded, following her out.

As they strolled around the streets, they conversed about various things like how they've been, a bit of gossip like Knuckles and Rouge's developing relationship, and she even asked him about his latest inventions. "I'm trying to construct a person-recognition security system all around Mystic Ruins," Tails explained. "By memorizing Eggman's presence and movements, it would give off a signal to a monitor in my workshop if he's approaching so that we can attack before he makes it to our homes."

Amy gave him a cheerful smile. "That sounds like the best idea you've ever come up with!" she encouraged. "Man, what would we do without you?"

He blushed timidly and took a sip of his smoothie. "I don't know... It's just a blueprint, for now. The parts I'd need to build it are really expensive, so I'll have to save up some money."

"Why not just enter that robot fighting competition?" she inquired.

Tails arched a brow. "What competition?"

She pointed to a small metal booth across the street. "It says there are sign-ups over there," she said before taking his hand and guiding him towards it.

When they arrived, Tails read over a small poster hanging from the booth, which stated a bot-fight competition with a grand prize of one thousand rings. His eyes brightened. "Well, this solves all of my problems!" he said happily, and Amy giggled.

He reached over and grabbed the pen to write his name on a sign up sheet, but within seconds of contact, he was electrocuted, causing him to release a loud cry. Amy nearly choked on her drink, dropping it to the ground. "Tails!" she shrieked, hesitating to pull him away and risk her getting electrocuted as well.

As she watched Tails fall unconscious from the electrocution, several of Eggman's badniks began to surround them. Amy gasped and summoned her hammer, quick to defend her friend, but they were overwhelming and easily knocked her onto the concrete ground. Several Egg Pawns approached Tails and swiftly threw a bag over him, and once the badniks saw that the mission was accomplished, they began to take off, carrying the bag with Tails over their metal bodies.

Amy groaned as she lifted herself up, scanning the horde to find the few robots that had Tails' bag lifted up. She had to make an immediate decision—follow the badniks to save him as soon as possible, make a long travel all the way to the Kingdom of Acorn to retrieve Sonic, or wait for the blue hero to return (assuming that he wouldn't stay the night there, but who knows?).

She settled for the first option on the spot, and she chased the badniks' path back to wherever Eggman's base was, hiding as much as she could so she wouldn't be caught. Throughout the tracking, she prayed that Tails would be okay and that she would be able to save him all by herself… Just like Sonic.

* * *

..:.:.:.:.:..

* * *

_May 19th_

_ Knuckles was right._

_ We__'re being watched in this world by… Something. I attracted too much attention on the train the last time I was there with Knuckles and Rouge, and I must've made it obvious to whoever is doing this that I'm regaining my memory._

_ With that in mind, Cream agreed with me, and she and I have been keeping things on the down-low. She wants me to come over again to help dig through the stuff in her shed, hoping to find something that__'ll jog our memories. _

_ —__Sonic the Hedgehog_

Sonic closed his journal and stuffed it under his mattress. He wanted to make sure Tails wouldn't be spying on anything personal since he was acting the most suspicious above everyone else.

He couldn't believe it; years of built up trust and friendship between the two was thrown out the window because of this issue.

But Sonic knew there was something wrong with Tails, and he was going to give everything he had in order to fix things.

He left his room to go downstairs and peeked through the garage door window to find Tails still cleaning up the Tornado. With that distraction, he could quickly leave to Cream's house and possibly come back in time without him noticing. Just as he prepared to run, one small robot had blocked his path.

"Good morning, Sonic," Orbot greeted politely in that eerie voice that made Sonic so uncomfortable. "Are you heading out?"

Sonic peered at the small robot before him and had even given thought to crushing the thing. "Gonna spend the day running in the valleys," he lied. "I need some fresh air."

"That sounds lovely. Have a nice afternoon, then." With that, Orbot opened the garage door to join Tails in his task. Sonic glared at the robot's back for a moment, and after shaking the uncomfortable atmosphere off, he left.

…

"Let me know when you two get hungry!" Vanilla called out the open window to Sonic and Cream, who were walking towards the shed in her backyard. "I can make some sandwiches."

Sonic smiled. "Thanks, Mrs. Rabbit!"

Once Vanilla was out of sight, Cream turned to the blue hedgehog. "How has everything been with Tails?" He merely sighed and shook his head, and she frowned. "It's a shame; he could've given us the most help with this."

"Which is why I think that whoever is holding us captive here is also somehow getting into Tails' is mind, more-so than the rest of us," he added.

"Chao…" Cheese mumbled disappointingly.

Cream approached the old wooden doors of her shed and grunted as she tried to pull them open. Sonic was about to offer assistance, but she managed to yank it open herself. Dust particles flew into their face, causing them both to cough and wave their hands to clear the air.

"When was the last time you were in here?" Sonic asked her, staring around at the mountains of old boxes and random junk lying around.

She shrugged and turned on a small lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. "I can't remember, honestly. We normally throw things in here that aren't used anymore." Her hands began to rummage around the piles and her eyes saddened to find an old dollhouse she used to play with. "I hope we find what we're looking for in here."

"Me too," Sonic agreed, moving to the boxes on the opposite side of her. "Just be careful that nothing falls you."

They scavenged through Cream's shed, box by box, analyzing everything carefully for about a half an hour. Sonic was near ready to give up until something shiny under a pile of scattered textbooks. He arched a brow and dusted off the stuff on top of it to find some sort of board.

"Hey, Cream, what's this?" he called to the back of the shed.

Cream took a moment to hop over the clutter to be at his side. She took a look at the board he held in his hand and blinked in confusion; it looked like a surfboard, painted in orange and yellow colors, and was about the size of Sonic, possibly even bigger.

"You found this here?" she asked him.

"Yeah, it was just lying around on the floor."

She took it into her hands and it suddenly powered up. They could hear the engines inside purr in activation, and two lights on the back began to glow.

Sonic's eyes widened. "This is…"

"It's my Extreme Gear!" Cream exclaimed in excitement. "Do you remember, Mr. Sonic?"

He scratched the back of his ear. "Man, I completely forgot about that whole episode," he said.

"It was so much fun, though!" She grinned and placed the machine down, which then began to lightly float above the floor. "Being able to race with you all was thrilling! I can't believe it slipped my mind."

The hedgehog chuckled. "Yeah, it was great until Eggman stole the key to Babylon Garden and kidnapped—"

He froze.

Cream cocked her head to the side. "Kidnapped who?"

"I…" he choked out, "I don't remember. My mind just suddenly went blank…"

She gasped. "Might it be the person we're looking for?!"

"Maybe…"

"Then we need to find out more about the Extreme Gear race," she stated hastily, picking the board back up into her arms. "Now that I think about it, I vaguely remember Eggman always kidnapping someone to lure you in, and it certainly wasn't me, or Tails." Sonic sighed and sat down on a box, which grabbed her attention. "Mr. Sonic, are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just that whenever I recall some memory about _them_, my head starts to hurt," he responded, rubbing his temples.

She frowned and placed her hand on his head. "It'll be okay, I promise. Why don't we go get some fresh air and sunlight?"

He raised his head to look at her and he smiled with a nod. He carried the Extreme Gear for her back outside, but Cream suddenly jumped and screamed, "What is that?!"

Sonic turned around and found her pointing to a small robot hiding around the corner of the shed. He pushed the small rabbit and Chao behind him protectively and narrowed his eyes until he realized that it was only Orbot.

"Hey, what are you doing here, you metal runt?" Sonic demanded in a low voice.

Orbot flinched and revealed himself, stepping in front of them. "I apologize, Sonic—"

"Wait a minute, were you spying on us?!"

Sonic took an angry step at the red robot, and Orbot began to back away. "N-No, I would never…!"

"Then explain yourself! How did you find me?" the hedgehog snarled.

"I swear, I'm only here because Tails asked me to come look for you! I-I'm installed with scanners to find people, and that led me here!"

Sonic glared at Orbot suspiciously, but he eventually unclenched his fists. "Mr. Sonic, is this one of Tails' robots?" he heard Cream whisper behind him.

Orbot's eyes brightened. "Hello! You must be Cream the Rabbit." He held out his metal hand in a courteous manner. "Tails informed me a lot about you, your mother, and your Chao."

Cream, however, didn't move an inch from her spot behind Sonic, and Cheese silently glared at Orbot. "It's nice to meet you," she said in a simple tone that deviated from her very soft demeanor.

Sonic scoffed. "Whatever! Tell Tails that I'm busy helping Cream find her mom's old tea set. I'll come home later."

"I apologize in advance for being brash, but that doesn't look like a tea set to me," the droid noted, referring to the Gear that Sonic held.

The blue hero scowled. "Why don't you mind your own business? Anyway, go back to the workshop; you're scaring Cream and Cheese."

Orbot was ready to argue, but the look that Sonic gave him made his circuits freeze. "Very well, I will notify Tails of your message," he finished before finally leaving the property.

Their eyes never left the robot until he was completely out of sight. "Was that one of Tails' new robots?" Cream's voice broke the silence.

"Yeah," Sonic growled under his breath. "I don't trust that thing." He turned so that his emerald eyes met her chocolate ones. "If he comes around again and tries to talk to you, tell me immediately."

She nodded confidently. "You can trust me."

Those words were enough to make him feel better, and he returned the smile. He then began to brush off the Extreme Gear still in his hands. "Whaddya say we test out this gear again after a lunch break?"

"I'd love too!"

* * *

..:.:.:.:.:..

* * *

Amy was utterly lost.

She'd somehow manage to follow the badniks all the way back to Eggman's base only to lose them when entering the spherical structured building. She had to sneak her way in through a vent in a blind spot hidden between two guard towers, but once she found herself inside some sort of prison chamber, she had no idea where do go.

She stealthily crept around the cold hallways of the base, checking every corner cautiously for any robot guards. After wandering around for ten more minutes, she spotted a familiar robot dashing down a narrow hallway as if his life depended on it—Orbot.

_'Wherever Eggman is, he's there too,' _she speculated, and sneakily followed the small, black and red contraption. Orbot entered a glass, automatic door, and from a distance, Amy could peer through it well enough to see Eggman inside. She patiently waited, keeping guard all around her, before the doctor himself finally exited the room, along with his pesky sidekicks, Orbot and Cubot. She hid behind a garbage can sticking out of a wall, despite him walking in the other direction, and once she knew the coast was clear, she ran into the room he had just left and gasped.

Tails was resting unconsciously in a metal chair in the center of the room—his wrists and ankles were tied to it by metallic straps; there was some sort of helmet-shaped gadget stuck on his head, which contained some colorful lights here and there. Numerous wires slithered out of the thick mechanism and were attached to a large machine with a monitor against the wall.

"Chaos, what is he doing to you?!" Amy whispered angrily as she stepped over to the machine to find an off button. Her eyes roamed over the keys, but the codes were too difficult to comprehend, and she was on a tight schedule. She did, however, notice on the monitor that the device on Tails' head was gathering information somehow, and entering data into Eggman's computer system.

Was he stealing Tails' brain?

Amy didn't want to waste anymore time; she swiftly summoned her piko piko hammer and slammed it down onto the machine. Static and electricity sprung out as she continued to pummel it, along with the monitor, and she continued to do so until she heard the satisfactory sound of the engine powering down.

While catching her breath, she spun around and watched the glowing lights on the helmet dim, giving her an initiative to gently pull it off of Tails' head. The damage done to the machine had also appeared to release him from his restrainers, and Amy pulled the young fox close, slinging his arm over her shoulder while hers went around his waist.

She was ready to carry him out of there when she heard the security alarms start to go off, and her heart nearly dropped (however, she still expected something like this to happen).

Tails groaned and slowly raised his head. "Sonic…?"

"Nope, he's on vacation," Amy answered, scurrying out of the room as fast as she could. "I'm covering his shift for today."

She paused at a corner and glanced around to make sure that no badniks were around to spot them. Tails grabbed his head. "Chaos… What did Eggman do to me?" he hissed.

Amy gulped and pulled him down the hallway to find the room she entered the base from. "Don't worry, you're gonna be okay—"

"Where do you think you're going with my test subject, girlie?"

Amy froze on her tracks and felt her blood run cold. She whirled herself and Tails around and gasped to find Eggman standing proud and erect with his badniks at his side. She scowled and sent him an intimidating glare, but he only smirked and stroked his mustache. "This is quite an interesting sight. I never expected to see you here rescuing the boy, Amy," he sneered at her. "Was Sonic not feeling up to the job, today?"

"He has better things to do than pay attention to your stupid agenda!" she spat back. "Besides, I'm twice the hero Sonic is!"

Eggman howled out in laughter. "If you're trying to scare me, you're only making yourself look like a pathetic child!"

Amy gritted her teeth and growled under her breath while Tails began to return to his senses. "Amy, you've gotta run," he suddenly spoke up, pulling himself away from her and trying to stand the best he was capable of. "I'll distract him; you go get Sonic."

"What?!" Amy yelled, grabbing his wrist and jerking him close again. "You're crazy! I can do this without Sonic!"

"You should be wise and listen to Tails," Eggman called out in a mocking tone. "He is a genius, after all!"

Tails' eyes met hers. "You'll get captured too if you don't hurry up and escape!"

"You're ticking me off, Tails!" she retorted.

His voice suddenly became sharp. "You can't do this on your own!"

Amy snapped.

"YES, I CAN!" She pulled out her hammer and charged after the badniks with a ferocious roar. With great speed and power that startled even Eggman, she smashed each robot of his to bits; some tried to fight back while others cowered away in fear. Tails watched in amazement at the amount of power that Amy held, and he couldn't help but grin.

Once they were all destroyed, she stood on top of the piles of rubble trying to catch her breath. Eggman glowered at her, shouting, "You little brat!" and pressing a button on his watch.

"What was that?!" she howled, twisting to his direction and lifting up her hammer with a tight grip. Eggman shuddered and began to take several steps away from her.

Tails speculated that Eggman was probably summoning more of his robots to aid him, so the fox sped over to Amy. "Great job, Amy! You've really proven yourself, now lets go!" he said hastily, grasping onto her hand and sprinting away with her before she could object. He led her down a series of hallways before coming across a door labeled "Maintenance," and kicking it open. Inside were stacks of cleaning supplies, vacuums, buckets full of waste metal, and a large garbage chute planted in the wall.

The young genius sighed in relief and tugged Amy inside before locking the door behind them. He then ran over to the garbage chute and drew open the door. "Amy, get in!" he ordered.

Amy, however, threw her hands onto her hips. "First, you insult me; now you want me to jump into a pile of garbage?" she huffed.

He rolled his eyes. "You're a stronger when you're mad, so I said that on purpose. Now let's go!"

"Wait, so you didn't mean it?"

They could hear the metallic footsteps approaching the door, so Tails shoved her inside without another word and hopped in quickly after. She screamed the whole way down until they landed in a dumpster somewhere along the outskirts of Eggman's base.

Amy was the first to pop out of the heap of garbage. "Tails!" she cried out angrily as she stood up to dust the dirt off of her dress. "I _cannot_ believe—!"

"Oh, my head…" Tails groaned as he sat up, clutching onto his head with one hand.

Amy instantly felt her anger wash away, and she leaned down to help him stand. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked in an unsettled tone.

He nodded. "Just a bit lightheaded."

She lightly smiled, and the two of them crawled out of the dumpster. Once they composed themselves, they began to travel as far away from the base as they could. "Where are we, anyway?" she asked as they wandered further and further away, not recognizing the vast hills tinted in a dark orange color.

"I'm pretty sure this is Pumpkin Hill," he replied. His blue eyes roamed the barren area, and he clicked his tongue. "The train station is too far from where we are now, so I'll just call Knuckles to come get us with the Tornado."

Amy watched as Tails began to push some buttons on his watch, and she sighed, plopping herself down onto the dusty ground. As soon as Tails finished catching Knuckles up on their situation, while being assured that they'd be picked up as soon as possible, he situated himself on the ground next to her.

She turned her head to him and grinned. "Does Knuckles even know how to fly the Tornado?"

He snickered and leaned his body against hers. "There's a first time for everything, right?" She chuckled back, and he was glad that she didn't have any objections to him resting against her. They sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again. "Sorry that Eggman had to ruin your birthday _again, _Amy…"

"Aw, it's alright," she said, patting his head. "I got to scare Eggman with my awesome combat skills, and that's a pretty decent present, if I do say so myself." He smiled, and they sat there waiting in the dazzling sunlight for a good ten minutes before Knuckles finally arrived, nearly crashing the Tornado into the ground while trying to land.

Most importantly, Amy couldn't wait to tell Sonic about how she rescued Tails all on her own.

* * *

**A/N: I wanna hear everyone's thoughts on this chapter! I've always felt that Amy and Tails needed more adventures together (Sonic and Cream as well), and Sonic Riders deserves so much more attention on here. I might reboot an old SonAmy fic I had stored away that takes place in Sonic Riders.**

**Anyway, I'm so glad I can finally drag my princess Sally into this madness. Just a to clarify though, this will not become a story where Sally is "the bitch that tries to get between Sonic and Amy." I want to stay as true to the characters as possible, meaning Sally and Amy are really good friends, and I kinda want to redeem Sally's character in the fanfiction world since a lot of people shit all over her.**

**Again, sorry for the long wait! Stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	5. Solace

**A/N: Welcome to the second flashback chapter that will finally have actual Sonamy moments!**

**And someone recommended I use a unique break for determining flashback parts and present parts, so I will be using**

**..:.:.:.:.:..**

**for that! Thank you! There will only be one transition at the end of the chapter, so keep that in mind (and this chapter's very dialogue-heavy, I hope it isn't boring!)**

**Also, y'all are gonna kill me for what I'm about to do with the first part of the chapter lmfao I couldn't help myself...**

* * *

V—Solace

"What do you mean I can't tell Sonic?" Amy whined.

Her, Tails, and Knuckles made it back to the workshop safe and sound, and were now lounging around in the living room. Tails was sitting on the couch along with Knuckles, but Amy was standing with her balled fists against her hips.

Tails sighed. "Sonic doesn't need to be stressed out over more things right now," he explained. "He'll feel guilty that he couldn't leave for a day without us being put in danger."

She huffed and turned her head away. "Psh! We weren't in danger. I had everything under control!"

Tails lowered his eyelids while Knuckles scoffed quietly. "I'm sure you did, but I know Sonic better than anybody, and I don't want him to feel bad for taking a day off to sort out his personal problems."

"Yeah, and you know very well how much he needed it," Knuckles added, eyeing the pink hedgehog. "Save your gloating for another day once this thing between him and Sally blows over."

Amy sighed and, after a moment of thought, heeded their words. "Yeah, you guys are right."

Tails glanced at Knuckles. "What do you mean by 'blow over'?" he asked.

"Come on, you know he's gonna let her bend him to her will. Sonic will do anything Sally says, whether he wants to or not," Knuckles explained, rolling his eyes and leaning on the couch arm. "He's gonna come back here telling us that they're back to square one all over again, as if nothing happened."

"No way!" both Tails and Amy shouted.

Tails continued, "If Sonic comes back here and they're not broken up, I'm banning chili dogs from this household!"

Knuckles snorted. "Whatever, I'm tired of repeating myself to him if he's not gonna listen. Anyway, I should back to the shrine." He stood up and pointed to the device on his wrist. "Call me if you guys get into anymore trouble."

Amy and Tails waved goodbye to the echidna as he left out the front door. Tails was about to speak, but Amy suddenly groaned and threw herself dramatically onto the couch, her face planted in a pillow.

"You good?" he said, and she released a muffled scream into the pillow. He exhaled and sat on the leftover cushion space that her body wasn't taking up. "Yeah, me too."

The pink hedgehog lifted her head up and gazed at him. "When do you think Sonic will be back?"

He shrugged. "Who knows?"

Amy sighed and plopped her head down again. "Do you mind if I hang around here the rest of the day?"

"I never wanted you to leave in the first place..." He suddenly gasped. "Oh, wait!"

Amy watched him curiously as he ran out the room and into his garage. She quickly glanced at a wall clock—the time was a quarter five—and hoped for Sonic's arrival soon.

She turned back to Tails at the sound of him entering the room again. In his hands were two small, green, capped tubes, and he passed one to her, saying, "Here."

Amy turned it over to search for some sort of label, but there was none. "What's this?" she asked.

"Bubbles! Open it up."

She arched a brow at him and opened the bottle with caution. She peaked inside to find a tiny bubble wand inside, and the aroma of soap bubbles was released into the air.

"Tails, are you serious?"

"Come on, try it," he persisted.

With a shrug, she decided to humor him and pulled out the wand. After taking in a small breath, she blew into the hole, anticipating a simple bubble to form.

However, this wasn't just any regular bubble; as it formed, it began to glow in a wondrous yellow light. Amy stared in awe as it detached itself from the wand and gently floated in the air.

"Tails, this is beautiful!" she exclaimed, reaching her hand forward to touch it.

Tails grinned as she poked at it. "Thanks, I modified it myself! And the best part is that it's so dense that doesn't pop easily!"

She began to blow more larger bubbles into the living room, giggling, and Tails joined her. The room soon became lit up with multiple colorful bubbles that hovered all around their bodies. Amy felt so enlightened by the sight that she started to dance under them, playfully bumping her body into Tails'. He blinked and stared at her as she placed their bubble containers down and took his hands into hers. She swung their arms together, and she pulled him along as she danced around the room. Tails was blushing, but he allowed a childish grin to take over his face, and he swayed with her.

As the bubbles fluttered into their faces, Amy began to laugh and he couldn't peel his eyes away from her smile. He swallowed nervously and lightly squeezed her hands.

"Happy birthday, Amy," he said, his voice cracking.

She didn't seem to noticed. "This is for me?" she asked.

"Yeah, I hope you like it."

"Like it?" Her emerald eyes sparkled and she pulled him into a warm hug. "Tails, I love it!"

Tails nearly melted into her touch, but just as quick as the hug started, it had ended, and he found himself disappointed. As she parted away from him, his blue eyes became fixed onto hers. His cheeks were still red, and he wondered if Amy had noticed by now.

Did he like her?

"U-Um, Amy..." he started, his voice trailing off.

She cocked her head to the side. "Yes?"

As Tails opened his mouth to speak, his eyes wandered up to the sparkling butterfly pin in her quills.

He immediately shut his mouth.

Even though Sonic wouldn't admit it, Tails knew that he felt _something_ for Amy, and he couldn't get in between that.

It's not like had a chance with her, anyway.

"Tails?" Amy's concerned voice brought him back. "Is something wrong?"

Tails blinked and shook his head. "Haha, sorry! M-My mind just wandered off," he sputtered, snatching his hands back from her. "I was gonna say that if you run out of the bubble soap, I'd be glad to make more for you."

Her suspicious gaze turned into a cheerful one. "That'd be great, thanks!"

They stood there for a moment, and a small bubble landed on Tails' nose, making her giggle. He chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his neck. "So, um... If you turn the wand over, the bottom has this rough texture that'll pop them..."

"Oh, I see."

Tails sat down on the couch, his elbows sitting on his knees so that he could rest his chin in his hands, and he watched Amy reach around the room to pop every glowing bubbled that floated still in the air.

At moments, he thought that maybe it was possible for her to like him when he grew older—maybe he would mature into a handsome young boy, and she could find him as more than just a friend. The four year age difference also shouldn't be that big of a problem in a couple of years...

But whenever that hairpin caught his eye, his hopes were shot down.

_'There was no way she'll ever stop loving Sonic... Right?'_ he thought.

"Hey, I'm home!" a voice exlaimed from the front door.

Amy and Tails swung their heads to face the door. Amy smiled and called out Sonic's name.

_'No, she will never.'_

The blue hedgehog waved at them as he closed the door behind him and entered the room. "Whatcha guys up to–?"

"Did you break up with her?" Tails interjected, jumping up from the couch.

Sonic appeared to be taken back by the expected question, and he noticed that Amy had the same analytical look in her eyes as Tails.

"Er..." he muttered, rubbing the back of his neck and averting his gaze.

"Sonic!" Tails cried out in an frustrated voice. "You didn't break up with her?!"

The blue hedgehog winced, and shrugged at his best friend. "I mean... It's not like I didn't consider it, so that's a good start, right?"

Tails rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest, while Amy smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. "Did you guys even talk about the dire issues at hand? Or did you give into her persuasion _again_?"

"Well..." Sonic started before pausing. Tails began to tap his foot impatiently, and Amy couldn't help but enjoy the way he scolded Sonic as if he were his child. "I tried bringing it up."

"And?"

"We got a little distracted," he answered flatly.

Tails arched a brow. "What do you mean by 'distracted?'"

Sonic averted his gaze again, and his voice became strained. "Just... Distracted."

The latter shook his head. "I don't understand what you mean," he said, but behind him, Amy's eyes were widening—she knew _exactly_ what he meant. "What could've possibly distracted you two...?"

"Tails!" Amy suddenly exclaimed, throwing her hands onto his shoulders from behind and pulling him close. "Why don't you go rest? You had a rough day, and your head probably still hurts." Tails turned to face her with confusion, slightly backing away to erase close proximity between them, and she smiled sweetly. "I'll chew Sonic out for you. After all, we were supposed to speak in private." She looked up to Sonic. "_Right_?"

"Wait, what happened to Tails?" Sonic asked.

She stiffened. "Oh! Well, um..."

Tails immediately jumped in to back her up. "I got sick from the roller coaster!" he stated loudly, grabbing their attention. "Amy made me go on one too many times, and I felt really dizzy the rest of the day."

Sonic fell for the bait in a heartbeat. "That brain of yours is too big to handle all those loops," he commented with a smirk. "Go rest up, bud."

Tails, however, wasn't in the mood to joke around with him. He simply scoffed and turned his back to Sonic. "Give it to him good," he told Amy before leaving to go upstairs.

Once she heard the echo of the door closing upstairs, Amy stomped forward until she was face-to-face with Sonic. "Are you insane?!" she yelled in a whisper, and Sonic gave a cocky grin. "Tails is eleven years old! He doesn't need to know about your 'distractions' with Sally, and quite frankly, I didn't need to know, either!"

"Ames, Ames," Sonic began, placing a hand on her head to calm her down, "why don't we go somewhere else more private to talk?"

She stuck her tongue out at him. "You sound like such a creep, but fine."

While she walked past him to reach for the door, he purposely tripped her so that she could fall into his arms, and he lifted her up. "Buckle up," he said with another smirk before dashing out the door.

By the time Amy finished blinking, they had arrived outside in a familiar field of lilies. She slowly unwrapped her arms from him and he set her down.

"I'm surprised you remembered where this was," she said in a gentle voice.

"Yeah, it has a nice atmosphere, doesn't it?" he responded before laying down in a few dozen lilies. "You picked a great spot to run off to. I'll be coming here more often."

As she watched him pluck a lily out of the ground and breathe in the fragrance, she sat down next to him. "Well, I found it first," she said playfully, "So I call the shots."

"Fine, we can share it," he dismissed, closing his eyes and placing his arms behind his head.

Amy stared up at the bright blue sky that had the slightest tint of lilac in it; the sun was going to set in a little while, but they had time.

"So..." she began, clearing her throat. "Things between you and Sally haven't been that great?"

He opened one eye to peer at her, and smirked again. "C'mon, Amy, I know that Tails and Knuckles have been letting you in on the gossip."

She pressed her lips together in embarrassment and huffed. "Oh, yeah? W-Well, they don't tell me _everything_..." She trailed off, and he began to laugh.

"Don't worry about it; if it's you, I don't really mind."

She slightly turned her head away to hide her blushing face, but he noticed. "Nonetheless, I want to hear it in _your_ words," she stated, turning back to face him once she calmed down. "If you're okay with that."

Sonic sat back up, sighing and gathering his thoughts. She sat there patiently and gave him a moment of silence to think.

"Sally's an amazing person," he began, and she slightly leaned forward attentively. "Aside from Tails, she's been my best friend and partner in crime, and I was even her consort for a while... But, you know, since her pops passed away, and the Freedom Fighters sorta split, she's all alone, and she depends on me, a lot. Of course, I don't mind; I'm always willing to help her out."

Amy mentally recalled the death of King Acorn almost half a year ago—he died of illness, and although Sally was absolutely heartbroken, she pulled together quickly to take over the kingdom. As for the Freedom Fighters, they all just drifted apart over the past few years to live out their own lives. Amy was sad to put those days behind her, but was content enough to always have Sonic, Cream, and Tails nearby.

Sonic continued. "About a month ago... She asked me to marry her so that I can rule by her side forever." Amy stiffened. "I didn't really know how to respond, but I knew deep down that it wasn't what I wanted, so I told her that I wasn't ready, yet. She said she understood, but I think that led her to believe that, at some point soon, I will be ready.

"For the past few weeks, she kept dropping these hints about how we're such a perfect team, and how everyone on Mobius sees me as a leader. She won't stop persisting with it, and I'm starting to wonder if she loves me or loves the idea of what I can do for her."

"Did you try giving her a firm answer?" Amy asked.

Sonic sighed and nodded. "Last week, I told her straight up that I can't settle down when I still need to be a hero, and we got into a huge fight. She told me that she wasn't confident in her leadership skills yet, and called me selfish for trying to abandon her and disregard her feelings. Then she yelled, 'I thought you loved me!', and I got so upset that I left. I didn't see her again until earlier today, but neither of us are really confrontational, so we got... Y'know, _distracted_."

Amy frowned as she watched Sonic's eyes sadden, and she softly placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry that this is happening to you guys. If you really loved each other, you'll need to sit down and try to settle this out, together."

"That's the thing, though; I couldn't tell her that I love her," he said, looking down. "Honestly, I'm not sure if I do, anymore." Her eyes widened, and he explained, "I've been realizing our differences lately—she wants to lead her kingdom for the rest of her life, and I want to live freely and be a hero for as long as I can." He let out a bittersweet laugh. "I mean, I'm only seventeen! I can't get married, not now, at least."

She couldn't believe this was happening; were Sonic and Sally actually going to break up?

"If that's how you feel, then what's holding you back?" the pink hedgehog inquired. "Are you afraid of hurting her?"

"Yeah," the blue hero answered. "But, honestly, after everything she's been through, I feel obligated to stay by her side, whether I want to or not. She doesn't deserve to be hurt like this. I think I might end up going through with it..."

"Sonic, you can't do that!" Amy snapped, her hand moving from his shoulder to his own hand. He turned to look at her, their faces close. "You can't give up your happiness just because she thinks she can control you! Even though she may not realize it, she's holding you back and trying to guilt trip you to stay with her!"

She paused to see if he would counter, but he only continued to stare at her, so she proceeded.

"Sally is the most courageous and passionate leader I've ever met; she can handle herself, and we'll be by her side if she needs us. But you'll be miserable for the rest of your life if you pretend that you're satisfied with ruling a kingdom next to someone you're not even sure you still love, and I'm sure she wouldn't want that for you, either!" She looked down, her fists tightening. "And Tails, and I..."

After realizing that hers and Tails' feelings shouldn't be relevant, she trailed off. They sat still for what felt like forever to Amy, and she began to worry that she might have sounded too pushy. When she finally decided to look up at him, she saw that his head was turned to view the open meadow in front of them, and he had a faint smile on his lips.

His next question threw her off. "So, did Tails show you a good time today?" he asked, laying down in the grass and closing his eyes again.

Amy's jaw tightened; she couldn't believe he was running away from his problems _again_. She had half the mind to beat some logic into his stupid blue head, but if he didn't want to talk about it anymore, she should respect that.

He would come to her again if he really needed to.

"Other than Tails feeling sick, it was fun," she said in a blatantly monotone voice. "Wish you could've joined us."

He chuckled and turned over onto his side facing her, his eyes still closed. "Yeah, sorry about that. I'm glad you guys had a good time, though."

"Mhm."

Once again, a still quiet overtook the scene. Amy, who was trying to give him the cold shoulder, focused her attention on the lilies that brushed against her fingertips whenever a soft breeze would drift by. The sky was becoming more dim in a lilac color, and she knew that the sun was going to start set soon. Sonic would have to take her home since she wasn't sure where they were, and she hoped that would be soon in order to escape the awkward silence.

Amy froze when she suddenly felt something nuzzle up against the side of her thigh. She dared to look down to discover that Sonic had fallen asleep, and while his body was cuddled close to hers, his head was snuggled comfortably against her thigh.

Her heart was beating a mile per minute, and she could feel her face light up with a blush. She couldn't believe that Sonic had actually fallen asleep and shifted towards her, but his soft snores confirmed the unbelievable. The last thing she wanted to do, now, was to move even the slightest and wake him up, ruining this once in a lifetime moment.

She remained sitting upright for the next hour, her eyes consistently wandering from him to her surroundings, while she pondered over everything that happened within that day—from Tails getting kidnapped to her conversation with Sonic. The blue hedgehog never adjusted himself from that position, though, and eventually, she fell asleep as well, her head hanging down while her body hunched forward slightly.

When she woke up, she was still half-asleep and her eyes were slightly open, but she conscious enough to register Sonic lifting her up from the grass. She noticed the dark sky for only a second before closing her eyes again, and before her senses drifted away again, she felt him set her down on a soft surface, and his hand brush a quill off of her muzzle.

* * *

The next morning, Amy awoke to the fresh smell of bacon. She rubbed her eyes open and sat up to realize that she was not in her home, but laying on the couch in Sonic's and Tails' living room.

_'I must've crashed here last night,'_ she thought as she last recalled falling asleep next to Sonic. That memory of him nuzzling against her was vivid enough to make her face flush again, and she tried to shake it off.

She heard footsteps enter the room, and she turned around to find Tails standing at the kitchen doorway. "Good morning," he greeted, walking over to her and setting down a plate of breakfast food on the small table in front of her.

She smiled sheepishly and tried to fix her messy quills. "Hey, Tails. Sorry if I'm intruding," she apologized.

The yellow fox shook his head and smiled back. "It's totally fine, you're not a bother. Sonic said he didn't want to wake you up, but he also didn't want to break into your house, so now you're here."

She chuckled and began to eat the breakfast he prepared while he sat down next to her. "So, did you knock some sense into him?" he suddenly asked. Her initial reaction was to scope the area to make sure Sonic wasn't around, and Tails chuckled. "Don't worry, he's not here. He stepped out about half an hour ago."

"Oh, okay," she said, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "And to answer your question: I have no idea."

Tails frowned and groaned. "What do you mean?"

"He told me literally everything, and after I gave my opinion on the matter, he did a complete one-eighty on the subject. Then he fell asleep."

Tails rolled his eyes and face-palmed. "That guy really bugs me sometimes..." She nodded in agreement as she scarfed down the rest of her food, and he sighed. "Well, I have no idea where he is now, so I'll have to lecture him when he gets back. In the mean time, you can chill here for as long as you want."

She glanced at him. "What about you?"

"I have blueprints to work on in the garage." Tails stood up to leave. "If you need me, I'll be in there, okay?"

She thanked Tails as he exited the room, and after contemplating whether she should go home or not, she settled on staying in the workshop for a while playing their video games. She told herself that she wanted to beat Sonic's high score (in some game about a red man that jumps over barrels), but she knew that she really wanted to wait for him to return, again.

She just hoped he wouldn't do anything irrational.

An hour had passed by when Amy had finally beaten his high score, and it was less exciting than she had anticipated, especially since not even Tails was around to witness it. For two more hours, she lounged around on the couch and watched some T.V. shows, while occasionally getting up to steal snacks from the kitchen. It was when she was scooping up a second bowl of ice cream that she heard the front door open, and Sonic's voice call, "Why is the living room such a mess?"

Amy dropped her spoon with a 'clang!' and dashed back into the other room to confront him. "It's about time you got here!" she exclaimed grumpily.

He arched a brow. "Have you been here all day?"

"Yes, I was worried about you!"

He sighed and began to clean up after the garbage and empty bags scattered around the couch. "Jeez, I bring you here and let you sleep over, and this is how you repay me?"

She blushed, folding her arms over her chest and turning her head away. "W-Well, I wouldn't have had to if _someone_ hadn't fallen asleep to begin with."

Sonic smirked and threw away the remaining snack wrappers. "Sorry, I got a little too comfy."

She knew he was pushing her buttons on purpose; she hated it when he tried flirting with her since he obviously didn't like her in that way, and yet she couldn't help but crave it.

Nonetheless, he had an advantage over her this time, and she tried to change the subject. "A-Anyway, I finally beat your high score, so eat that!" she exclaimed.

His emerald eyes widened. "You did? You suck, Amy!" He turned on his game system (shutting off her romance movie in the process) and hopped onto the couch after grabbing the controller. "Don't worry, I'll redeem myself."

"Yeah, right," she muttered under her breath. "But I'm sorry about the mess. I'll leave, if you want."

"No way, you're gonna stay here and watch me reclaim the throne," he argued, patting the seat next to him. She nodded and retrieved her ice cream before sitting on the opposite end of the couch.

There was an awkward silence between them, excluding the noises emitting from the video game. Amy was watching him closely, and he happened to glance at her at the same time. Once their eyes met, Sonic cleared his throat and spoke again.

"So, why exactly were you worried about me?" he questioned.

She sighed and frowned. "Because... this dispute with Sally obviously makes you upset, and I'm worried that you're gonna make a decision that'll leave you unhappy."

Sonic tilted his head to the side. "Oh, yeah, _that_," he said. "It doesn't matter, anymore. I broke up with her a few hours ago."

...

Once Sonic's words registered in her mind, Amy froze in shock, causing her to drop her ice cream bowl onto the floor.

Sonic groaned and bent down to pick it up. "C'mon, Ames! How many times do I have to clean up after your messes?"

"Y-You broke up with her?" she sputtered, ignoring his complaint and turning to face him. "Are you being serious?"

He was lightly smirking. "Yeah, and I feel pretty relieved."

She covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh... Oh, my gosh!" She grinned. "Sonic, I'm so proud of you! Based on your reaction last night, I didn't think..."

"Well, a certain someone gave me the push I needed," he said with a little shrug, his smirk turning into a smile.

She smiled bashfully in return, but her face quickly morphed into a worried look. "Is Sally okay, though? What happened?"

Sonic paused his game and leaned back into the couch. "Well, I broke the news to her a little while after I got there. She got really upset, as expected, and I tried to explain to her how we've become too different for each other. We had a calm talk about it for a few hours, and she eventually caught my drift."

"That's it?" she asked, and he nodded. She sighed in relief. "That's good, I'm glad everything turned out okay."

He unpaused his game. "Yup, now I can sit back, relax, and relive the single life."

Amy smirked and leaned towards him. "Enjoy it while it lasts, because we all know you're gonna fall for me, eventually."

She knew she hadn't made made a flirtatious remark like that to him in a long time, and she could tell it caught him off guard. "Knock it off," he laughed in an unnoticeable nervous tone while playfully swatting her away. She giggled, and he stood up again. "I should probably go tell Tails."

"Yes, go!"

Amy shooed him away as he left to the garage, and after a brief silence, she heard Tails' voice holler, "YOU DID?!" all the way inside, and she burst out in laughter.

The pink hedgehog laid down on the couch and smiled, releasing another sigh of relief; she was glad that none of them had to feel anxious about that dispute anymore, and she made a mental note to make an effort to comfort Sally and give her some company.

Things were going to start getting better...

Yet, Amy couldn't help but remind herself of Tails' kidnapping and sense the slightest impulse of torment in the back of her mind.

* * *

..:.:.:.:.:..

* * *

Amy's injured body was sprawled out on the cold floor of her cell. She stared at the ceiling, very detached and unexpressive, and tried to push away the reoccurring images of her prior fight with Visbot-01. When she wasn't having these disturbing thoughts, she would ponder over the past, and how her actions had led everyone into this mess.

It was her fault.

Her mind suddenly wandered over to the thought of Shadow; he hasn't visited her for some time now, and she considered that maybe he had given up on her.

She was thinking of doing the same, and not even the thought of Sonic would be able to convince her otherwise.

* * *

**A/N: So ****I've been spending, like... **_**hours**_** reading up information about the Archie comics... I want to read them so badly holy hell. **

**This story isn't supposed to correspond with that crazy timeline and everything about the comics, but it has mixed aspects of Archie world and the games.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, even though it was a bit short! The flashbacks aren't over yet, but there was too much to fit into this chapter, so I decided to split it for next time. **

**Check out the links in my bio to my tumblr and deviantart if you wanna see the full-res of the cover photo! Stay tuned! :^)**


	6. Too Good

**A/N: Actual author's note at the end of the chapter. Enjoy this lengthy chapter as a gift for my absence.**

* * *

VI—Too Good

Nearly two months had passed very quickly with the lack of Eggman in everyone's lives. Amy began to wonder if he'd disappeared for good, only to remind herself that this wasn't the first time he'd hide for a while before shocking them with a new invention he'd been putting all that time into. In fact, if that were the case, then she was going to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasted.

Sonic, however, couldn't handle it.

Whenever Eggman would vanish for some time, Sonic would get a bit jittery from the lack of action in his daily life. Normal, every day crimes in Station Square wouldn't be satisfying enough for him, and since his ties with Sally had been cut, he was more restless than ever.

Knuckles joked about staging a kidnapping of Amy, and while they all laughed at it, they could tell Sonic wouldn't have been too against it.

Amy was not sure what the extent of his restlessness was until one day, around noon, there was a knock on her door, and she was shocked to find the blue hero himself standing on the other side, hands behind his back.

"Hey, wanna hang out?" he said.

She blinked in confusion for a moment before responding with, "Um... What?"

He arched a brow, and his eyes flickered to the side and back to her. "Do you..." he spoke slowly and sarcastically, "want to... hang out?"

She couldn't believe her ears. A smile began to creep on her face until she cut it short with a suspicious look. "Sonic, just how bored are you?" she questioned.

His hand went to the back of his head and he glanced away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You're an awful liar, I hope you know that."

"C'mon, Ames!" he threw his hands out dramatically. "Tails is at a convention, and Knuckles is frolicking off with Rouge, so let's do some fun stuff together!"

She placed a hand on her chin and looked up at the sky thoughtfully. "I was actually gonna run some errands right now, but, later tonight, we could-"

"I'll come with you."

Well, how could she say no to that?

Amy excitedly dashed inside to grab her bag and ran back. He then lifted her into his arms and, in a matter of seconds, they were in Station Square.

The two spent a few hours there in the city hopping from shop to shop. This wasn't the first time Sonic got dragged along into Amy's shopping sprees, and he always ended up carrying everything she bought, but she noticed a difference in his attitude. As they walked down the street and talked about new movies that were coming out, she saw a difference in his eyes and the way he smiled at her. She started to talk about a TV series she had been keeping up with, and he seemed interested—he would listen to every word she said and respond.

It was as if he was actually enjoying himself, and the thought of that made her heart flutter.

"What's wrong?" he suddenly asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"Hm?" she muttered.

"You were staring at me weirdly," he said, the corner of his lips forming a tiny smirk.

She lightly blushed in embarrassment and averted her gaze. "Nothing, I just got lost in my thoughts," she explained, giving a nervous chuckle.

He opened his mouth to speak until there suddenly was the piercing sound of glass shattering. They both snapped their heads to view the other side of the street and saw three bandits robbing from an expensive clothing store. The three goons broke through the window and were speeding away with sling bags tossed over their shoulders.

"Amy, stay here," Sonic said, carefully placing the bags he was carrying down on the ground. "This will only take a minute."

"Sonic-"

He was gone before she could even finish responding.

Amy sighed inwardly; this happened nearly every time they go to the city together, except Sonic would always forget to return (or, at least, that's what he'd say). She understood that he had a job to do, and people relied on him, but it still stung her whenever she would got ditched.

Was that how Sally felt?

She waited around for about fifteen minutes before she decided to try to carry everything home by herself. She bent down to start picking up her bags until someone else snatched it up before she could. She jerked her head up to find Sonic standing next to her again, a cocky grin on his face.

"Need help?"

Amy gasped and jumped back in surprise. "S-Sonic!"

"What's the matter? You thought I wouldn't come back?" he asked, faking a hurt expression.

She nearly rolled her eyes, but smiled. "You normally forget, so I was about to leave," she said, lifting up the remaining bags.

"C'mon, Ames, give me more credit, here." They began to walk back to the train station. "It was a quick clean up, but the store owner felt the need to give me a ten year speech on how grateful he was."

Amy snorted and giggled. "Aw, that's sweet. Maybe he'll let you go on a no-charge shopping spree now."

"Ha ha, very funny, Amy."

They sat down on the first seats they could find in the train, and it departed after a few minutes. Silence had fallen upon the two, and Amy was gazing out the window, until she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Sonic's foot was tapping rapidly, and his arms were folded over his chest as he stared out the window.

"Sonic, are you okay?" she asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He winced at her touch, but tried to play it off with a grin. "Yeah, of course. Why do you ask?"

She frowned. "You seem really anxious."

Sonic shrugged and leaned forward. "I don't know,. The hero lifestyle has been a little boring, lately."

She chortled. "You miss Eggman that badly?"

"Come on, don't make me say it out loud," he sighed, and she smiled. "But, I have been wondering lately... What if Sally was right?"

Amy's grin immediately vanished. "What do you mean?"

"She wanted me to settle down with her, and I objected because I want to continue to be a hero, but... There hasn't been much of anything to be a hero to, recently," he explained, his eyes glued to his feet. "At least, nothing big enough to consume a lot of my time and end my long-term relationship. Do you... do you think I made a mistake?"

The pink hedgehog rested her hand on his back. "Sonic, you know very well that, in the past, Eggman has disappeared for weeks. It just feels different this time probably because of your breakup. You... obviously miss Sally."

"As a friend, yeah," he said, lifting his head up and staring out the window. "During times like these, the Freedom Fighters would be handling other business, together." He paused for a moment before shaking his head. "Yeah, you're right. This is the first time I've ever had so much free time like this, and I can't fall back on the old team, anymore."

Amy gave him another smile. "Not to mention that you're being forced to take the train right now," she teased, and he chuckled. "You can always fall back on us, though. We can force Knuckles to hang out with us, if we have to!"

He grinned at her, and right on cue, the train had finally stopped at Mystic Ruins. They both hustled to Amy's house as quickly as possible since the weather was starting to get colder, and Amy invited Sonic to stay for dinner the rest of the evening.

"I can make chili dogs, if you'd like," she said, tying an apron around her waist.

Sonic shook his head and reached for her house phone. "Don't make anything. Let's just order takeout," he said with a smirk.

She complied, as she knew there was no way to talk Sonic out of it when he was craving Chinese food. Once their meals had arrived, they spent the remainder of the night eating, talking, and watching movies, sharing a large fuzzy blanket. Amy couldn't recall how, but they ended up sitting closer to each other as the room got colder throughout the evening, and, at some point, she dozed off.

* * *

Sonic's eyes were still closed as his mind came-to the next morning, but he had never felt so warm and comfortable sleeping on a couch before. He sighed happily and nuzzled closer to the heat source on his shoulder, breathing into its sweet scent. He was ready to fall back asleep until his wrist communicator began to loudly beep.

A deep groan was emitted from the back of his throat, and he lifted his left wrist up closer to his face, having to navigate around the body lying on him that was in the way.

He pressed a button on the side of the device with his other hand and spoke, "Yeah?"

_"Hey, Sonic, are you okay?"_ came Tails' voice.

"Yeah, why?" Sonic replied groggily.

_"Well, you didn't come home last night and you're not here right now, so, I guess I'm just making sure you didn't get kidnapped, or anything."_

Sonic chortled, slowly opening his eyes and blinking away the bright sunlight coming through the window. "I hung out with Amy last night, remember?" he said, his voice still slightly raspy. The heat source lying on him shifted, and he sunk closer to it.

_"Oh, yeah, I forgot,"_ Tails said. _"So, you stayed over for the night?"_

Sonic arched a brow. _'I did?'_ he wondered. _'Now that he mentions it…' _

He decided to finally glance down at his heat source that was lying on top of him, and...

Oh, Chaos.

Sonic rapidly sat up, and the quick motion threw Amy off of him, and back onto the other side of the couch. Amy yelped out in shock, and her eyes snapped open as she squirmed to sit back up.

Amy was still in a confused, sleepy state, but her green eyes quickly landed on the blue hedgehog sitting across from her and formed a glare. Sonic was panting, as if he were out of breath, and she cocked her head to the side. "Sonic, what's the big idea?" she mumbled in annoyance, rubbing her eye in a cute manner that forced Sonic to look away. For some reason, his heart was racing at the sight of her, and Tails' frantic voice in the background wasn't helping.

The blue hedgehog tried calming himself down, and he smiled nervously. "A-Amy, I'm gonna go, okay?" he stuttered as he stood up.

She frowned and shook away any remaining drowsiness. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

He stared at her for a moment; it was possible that she had no idea she was sleeping on him like that. Sonic opened his mouth to reply, but Tails' voice cut him off.

_"Sonic, are you and Amy…!?"_

Sonic shut off the communicator before Tails could finish his sentence. Amy narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but his nervous smile didn't falter, and he stood up. "Yeah, Tails, uh, got his head stuck while fixing the Tornado, so, I gotta run," he lied as he inched closer to the door.

Amy's eyes widened. "What?! Is he alright?" she exclaimed.

"Obviously not, that's why I gotta go help him. See ya, Ames!"

"Sonic, wai-!"

Before she could finish, Sonic sped off, running as far from her house as he could until he arrived at the door of Tails' workshop. He sighed heavily and rubbed his temples—what could have been thinking? He shouldn't have let Amy get that close to him. He's just lucky that she wasn't conscious enough to acknowledge their positions, even if they were just sleeping.

Yet, at the same time, he couldn't help but reminisce in the warmth and comfort he felt when she slept on him.

He shook his head rapidly—no, he was not going to use Amy as a rebound. He told himself that he was only projecting any remaining feelings for Sally onto Amy, and he should distance himself from her a bit.

However, over the course of the next few weeks, he found it too difficult to spend time away from her and their friends. He couldn't explain why, but he greatly enjoyed her company, even when it was just the two of them.

Sonic concluded that their friendship had probably just grown stronger over the past few months, and he refused to read into it any deeper than that.

* * *

Christmas was arriving quicker than expected, and Amy stayed locked up in her house for an entire day crafting out presents for her loved ones. She ordered a cute tea set for Cream, knitted a scarf for Knuckles, bought a bracelet set for Rouge, and collaborated with Tails on a combined gift for Sonic. She had even sent Sally a care package of sweets, flowers, and letter to lift her spirits up incase she didn't see her for the holidays, which was highly likely considering her breakup with Sonic. All that was left was Tails.

The thought of him made her groan and slam her head onto the dining table she sat at. Tails was the last person she needed a gift for, and she was stuck on how to top off his birthday gift for her, which was very difficult considering she was going up against a boy super genius. She wanted to get him something meaningful, but also something that he would make use of. Amy sighed again and slouched back into her seat. She couldn't understand why thinking up a gift for Tails was so difficult.

Just when she thought all hope was lost, her communicator made a noise. She glanced at it to find a message from Sonic, and her heart fluttered.

_"I'm gonna be there in 5,"_ it said.

It became almost routinely for Sonic to randomly message her that he was coming over (or he would just show up at her doorstep without notice), and it never failed to put a bright smile on her face. She put on her winter coat, scarf, and boots as quickly as she could and opened the door to reveal Sonic already standing there.

"That was fast," he commented.

"Not as fast as you," she replied.

"Yeah, you're right."

"You just wanted me to say that, didn't you?"

He turned his back to her, hiding his smirk under his scarf. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She shoved him playfully and he laughed. "So, what are we doing today?" she asked.

He suddenly scooped her into his arms. "Hang on tight, we're heading to the city!" he exclaimed, and before she could react, they were standing in the center of Station Square's busiest shopping block.

Amy shivered as she pulled away from Sonic. "You've finally decided that you love to shop with me?" she teased. "I didn't know this was your preferred idea of a date."

"Knock it off," Sonic muttered, rubbing his nose. She snickered and he continued. "Well, see… I'm having trouble finding Tails a Christmas gift. I was wondering if you could help me out."

The pink hedgehog's eyes widened and she grasped his hands. "Me too! I have no idea what to get him!" she cried.

His hopeful face morphed into one of defeat, and he smiled crookedly. "You too, huh?" he chuckled out.

"Sonic, let's collab!" she said excitedly. "We can both pick something out and give it to him."

He arched a brow. "You think he'll like that?"

She shrugged. "I don't see why not."

He smiled again and held his arm out to her. "Well, then, let's get busy!" She nodded, wrapping her hand around his arm, and he led them throughout the large block.

They spent about an hour store hopping, focusing especially on stores geared towards mechanics and electronics. After leaving another store empty-handed, they began to lose hope.

"Are we being too picky, maybe?" Amy suggested as they stopped by a buffet restaurant.

Sonic frowned. "I don't know, I feel like we're not thinking about the right stuff. We don't have a lot of options since we don't really understand his taste in tools and stuff."

"Yeah, and it's not like we can buy him a brand new plane," she sighed.

Sonic bit into his chili dog and looked around the room in thought. His sights landed on young lioness who was sitting alone at a table by the window. She had large headphones on her ears and appeared to be drawing on a sketchpad. His eyes suddenly widened in realization, and once Amy noticed, she followed his line of sight towards the lioness.

She turned back to Sonic with furrowed brows. "Who's that?" she asked, trying her best to not sound jealous.

Sonic's eyes snapped back towards the hedgehog in front of him. "What? I have no idea, but do you see those headphones? That's what we're looking for!"

"Can you explain?"

He nodded. "Tails had this old boombox he used to use while he worked, but it blew up on him, and now, he normally works in silence. So…"

"I buy him a new speaker, you buy him a new music player?" she perked up.

"I was gonna say we should get him a record player, but that's an even better idea!"

The two quickly scarfed down the rest of their food and dashed out into the cold towards the nearest electronics store. They left the store about a half an hour later, both holding a different bag and wearing accomplished grins on their faces as they walked down the street.

"You're gonna help me wrap this when we get back, right?" she asked.

"Of course, I'm not gonna leave you hanging, Ames," he replied, smiling at her. She blushed lightly and returned the smile, but hid it under her scarf. Sonic took note of her bashfulness and was about to make a remark, until a loud, booming voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh, ho ho! Long time no see, eh, Sonic?"

Both of their eyes widened, and they stared the sky above them to find a large sphere descending towards them.

Sonic felt a thrill when he saw Eggman sitting comfortably in his Eggmobile right in front of his very eyes, with the company of Orbot and Cubot, as well. He smirked and walked forward, approaching the vehicle, while Amy summoned her Piko Piko Hammer.

"Eggman! Nice of you to finally crawl out of whatever hole you've been hiding in for the past few months!" he said.

Eggman grinned evilly and stroked his mustache. "It's been too long, Sonic. I see you've finally went steady with your little girlfriend. Did you miss me?"

"Hardly," Sonic replied, ignoring the first remark. He placed his gift bag down and cracked his knuckles. "Did you come empty handed for your beating?"

The evil scientist roared out in laughter. "Hilarious, Sonic! But, you know I never do." He slammed his fist onto a button on his machine, and yelled out, "Riot-Bot, destroy!"

Sonic and Amy suddenly felt the ground rumble beneath them, and, before they could react, an enormous rectangular-shaped robot popped out of the concrete right in between Sonic and Amy, throwing them back. They gasped and stared up at the robot that was now towering over them both.

Eggman laughed and raised his vehicle higher, creating distance between himself and the scene. Both hedgehogs took a battle stance to prepare for another attack, but became struck with confusion when the robot ignored them. Instead, it stomped over to one of the stores and smashed its giant fist into it, causing destruction and chaos. The two charged at it, hitting it with different attacks, but the machine just continued forward, crashing into buildings and knocking over light poles.

"Sonic, it's going to keep ignoring us to destroy the whole city!" Amy shouted as she landed on her feet.

Sonic clicked his tongue and turned his head to peer at Eggman, who had his legs kicked up to watch the show.

He quickly glanced back at Amy. "Amy, can you try to slow the robot down while I look for the off button?" he called.

She nodded. "I'll try my best!" she answered before jumping onto the bot's large shoulder. She swung her hammer several times into its shoulder and head, creating dents in hope that she could distract it before it destroyed another building. To her luck, its movements halted, and it slowly lifted its mechanical hand to reach for her, but she jumped off in time.

Meanwhile, Sonic was running along the side of a building and gained enough leverage to leap onto the Eggmobile. Eggman appeared surprised by his sudden appearance, gasping and jumping back in his seat as Sonic stood tall and proud on the front of his vehicle.

"Hey, get off from there! You'll dirty my Eggmobile with your filthy shoes!" he snarled.

Sonic rolled his eyes and searched around the craft—gazing over Orbot and Cubot, who were cowering behind the Doctor's chair—and landed on a peculiar device in Eggman's hand.

"Bingo!" he sang, snatching it right out if his grip.

"Hey!" Eggman snapped, jumping out of his seat and grabbing Sonic's arm. "Return that at once!"

"In your dreams, Egghead!" Sonic retorted, struggling to keep his balance on the shaking vehicle while holding the device away from Eggman.

Eggman growled and managed to grab the device, but Sonic's grip was firm, and they began to tug on it back and forth, jamming all the colorful buttons on it.

Meanwhile, Amy had managed to rip off a panel on the back of the Riot-Bot's head, and she was smashing any wire and gear she could find, simultaneously dodging it's large metallic hand as it swiped at her.

Suddenly, the machine froze, and Amy could hear some sort of engine power up inside it. Then, before she could even react, the robot's hand clamped tightly around her body, knocking the air out of her, and threw her onto the ground in front of it.

Sonic had managed to witness the scene out of the corner of his eye. "AMY!" he yelled out, causing Eggman to freeze and turn his attention to her, as well. Sonic used the distraction to kick Eggman away, and, after a moment, he found the off switch for the robot on the device, and shut it down. The engines within the Riot-Bot began to power down, and the robot stilled after a few seconds, hunched over.

Sonic sighed in relief and was about to run to Amy's aid, until Eggman grabbed his leg and pulled him out from under his feet. Sonic grunted as his face slammed into the metal of the Eggmobile, and Eggman pulled out one of his ray guns.

"Oh, no you don't!" he growled, aiming the gun at his robot below. "Now, you'll pay!"

Sonic looked up at him, confused by his intentions, until he realized that the large robot was already hunched very far over, hovering over Amy's body. "Eggman, don't-!"

Eggman blasted his ray gun into the back of his robot, and it was enough force to get it to start tilting over further.

Sonic had no time to waste. In a split second, he had knocked the entire Eggmobile to the next street, and was spin dashing cleanly through the center of the falling robot to get to Amy in time.

But when he had sliced through and landed on the ground, he couldn't find her anywhere. After quickly triple-checking, he leapt out of the way of the falling robot in just the nick of time. The ground shook from the collision of the machine with the ground, and once everything settled, Sonic collected himself and stood back up.

"Amy?" he called out, his voice shaking ever so slightly. "Amy, where are you?"

"She's right here."

Sonic knew that voice. He whipped around to find Shadow standing behind him carrying Amy, who appeared to have regained consciousness.

He gritted his teeth at the sight of the dark hedgehog, who was gently placing Amy down on her feet. Sonic jogged over and placed both hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay?" he asked, a foreign look of distress in his eyes.

Amy gave a little smile. "I'm fine. I just got the wind knocked out of me and hit my head, but it's not as bad as it sounds," she explained.

One of his hands went up to her cheek, and she completely froze. "Are you sure? You don't need a hospital?"

Amy's face flushed, and she avoided any eye contact. "W-Well, u-um, no…" she drifted off.

It took a moment for Sonic to realize what he was doing, and he quickly retrieved his hands back to his sides. He tried to play it off cooly by turning his attention back to Shadow. "So, what brings you to town, faker?" he questioned.

Shadow folded his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes. "Enough with the childish nicknames, you idiot," he growled, and Sonic frowned. "And, for your information, I've always been in town… Not that it's any of _your_ business."

"Good to know you're grumpy as ever," Sonic retorted.

Shadow held himself back from rolling his eyes again, and he turned around and began to walk away. "I don't need to waste my time here anymore…"

"Shadow, wait!" Amy quickly called out. "Thank you for saving me."

Shadow paused for only a second before replying, "Sure," and continuing along.

Sonic glared at the back of his head as he walked away until he felt Amy touch his arm. "If you're done being bitter, can we leave? It's starting to get cold," she said in a snarky manner.

He blinked and turned to face her. "It's been cold, Amy," he shot back with a smirk. Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Wait, the gifts! Where…?" Amy held up both bags in front of his face with a cocky grin. "…You rock, Ames."

"I know."

* * *

Tails wanted the Christmas party that year to be smaller than most years, so only their inner circle celebrated that evening, which included Cream, Cheese, and Rouge. Rouge stated that she invited Shadow as well, but they all knew he wasn't going to show up, and they paid no mind to it.

Amy arrived earlier in the day to help them set up, and when Tails complained about how they didn't have anything good to play music on, her and Sonic decided to give him his Christmas present ahead of time. To both of their relief, he was ecstatic, and couldn't stop thanking them.

Cream and Cheese arrived around five that evening with extra food, and Knuckles and Rouge showed up two hours later. They spent the majority of the evening having fun talking, playing some card games, and eating Amy's and Cream's freshly prepared meals. At one point, Amy had tried cleverly persuading Sonic to stand under a mistletoe with her without him knowing, but he quickly caught onto her game and lightly turned her down, much to her dismay.

At around nine-thirty, Cream announced that she had to leave soon to spend time with her mother and the rest of her family in Station Square, so Tails stood on the coffee table and shouted out, "Present time!"

They all excitedly gathered around the Christmas tree that sat in the corner of the room, and began exchanging gifts to each other. Amy was filled with joy to see that her friends were very pleased with their gifts, especially Sonic. She and Tails got him a dash button, where with one press, his favorite chili dog joint in the city would be immediately notified to make his favorite order, and it would be prepared by the time he ran over. He had nearly teared up when they had finished explaining the gift to him, and he pulled the both of them into a warm hug.

Finally, the last present under the tree was pulled out by Sonic, and he handed it towards Amy with a soft smile. "Merry Christmas, Ames," he said. "I know you're gonna like it."

Amy could feel her heart racing at the sight of the small, cutely wrapped box, and for a split second, she wondered if it was a ring (although she shot that thought down immediately). Tails was sitting on the couch, watching happily, until the doorbell rang, and Amy paused.

"Oh, that might be Shadow!" Rouge chirped.

Sonic's cheerful expression dropped; of course, Shadow _had_ to interrupt the best part of the evening.

"Don't worry, I'll get it," Tails said, standing up. "Continue on without me, I already know what it is!" he added as he left the room.

Sonic turned back to Amy. "Open it," he insisted.

She didn't need to be told twice. Amy ripped off the wrapping paper in under a second, and she carefully opened the silver box to reveal a small envelope. Sonic snickered at her confused expression, and after she opened the envelope, she pulled out a sleek, golden, plastic card.

"Is that a credit card?" Rouge questioned.

Amy looked at Sonic with an arched brow, and he grinned. "Remember when we went to the city a few weeks ago and I had to take care of that robbery?"

She looked up in thought for a moment. "Yeah, it was at that really expensive…" She cut herself off with realization. "Wait…"

Sonic's grin widened. "And remember when you joked about the owner giving me an all expense paid shopping spree for helping the store?" Her eyes began to brighten. "Well, you may have been right there, Ames, and _that_ right there is the golden card that'll let you shop as much as your little heart desires from the finest fashion shop in town!"

Both Cream and Rouge gasped in awe, and before Sonic could say anything else, Amy squealed with joy and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Oh, Sonic! I can't believe you would actually do something like this for me!" she exclaimed, burying her head into the crook of his neck. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Everyone in the room expected him to calm her down and pry her off of him, but what happened next completely threw them off.

Sonic wrapped his arms around Amy's waist and he lifted her into the air, spinning her around once and smiling up at her. "I'm knew you'd like it, Ames!" he laughed.

"Like it? I _love_ it, Sonic!" she told him with a brilliant smile, blushing as he tightened his hold on her. Their faces were so close that their noses were almost touching. He spun her around again, and her laughter filled the room.

Unbeknownst to them, Tails had entered the room with another guest just in time to watch the scene unfold. He glanced up at the person standing next to him before clearing his throat awkwardly. "Um, guys…" he started.

Everyone turned their heads to face Tails, including Sonic and Amy, and their jaws dropped.

"Sally's here," Tails said, gesturing over to Sally, who was standing beside him with many gift bags in her hands.

She had her bright blue eyes locked on Sonic's, and he was frozen in time, unable to rip his eyes away from her. Amy noticed and began to tap on his shoulder as a gesture to let her down, and once he snapped out of his trance, he dropped her a little too roughly for her tastes.

Everyone else in the room became engulfed by the awkward atmosphere as well, so Amy took the initiative to break it. "Sally!" she exclaimed, rushing over to the chipmunk and enveloping her in a heartfelt hug. "It's so great to see you!"

Sally's initial shock had worn off and she smiled. "Hey, Amy! I've missed that cheerful attitude of yours," she giggled, making Amy blush. "I'd hug you back if my hands weren't full."

"Here, let me help you," the pink hedgehog offered as she took some of the bags off of Sally's hands. Everyone else in the room, excluding Sonic, headed over to greet her as well. As Amy went to take the bags to the tree, she passed by Sonic, who seemed slightly distressed. "Hey, everything will be alright," she whispered softly to him. He glanced at her and she gave him a reassuring smile. "This doesn't have to be a bad thing, you know?"

Sonic took in a deep breath and smiled back. "Thanks, Amy," he whispered back before joining the rest of them.

Sally was apologizing to everyone for showing up so suddenly when Sonic tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to look at him, and her expression was unreadable.

"Hey," he said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. "It's been a while."

She was quiet for a moment before she chuckled. "It's been too long, Sonic," she said, lifting up one of the bags for him. "Merry Christmas."

He released a breath under his nose that he didn't even realize he was holding in the first place, and his muscles relaxed a bit. "Thanks, Sal. Merry Christmas to you, too."

Amy smiled as she watched from across the room, and eventually called them all back over so they could sit down and relax.

The awkward atmosphere had still remained a little bit after Sally's arrival, but once they took a moment to settle in, the evening continued on like normal. They mostly surrounded their discussions around Sally, catching catching her up with their lives and vice versa, only Sonic was a bit more quiet than usual—he was obviously trying to avoid having as much conversation as he could with her.

Amy also noticed the way Sonic was making distance from her as well, in comparison to the beginning of the day. He wasn't sitting close to her like he did before, nor was he making much eye contact, and it stung her heart a bit; was he afraid Sally would get the wrong idea?

Her mind went blank for a moment. _'Wrong idea about what? It's not like there's anything going on between us,'_ she told herself.

There was a harsh, sinking feeling in her chest.

_'There's nothing going on between us.'_

She always knew that. So, why did it feel like she was realizing that for the first time?

"Amy?"

A voice broke her out of her thoughts, and she turned to her side to gaze at Cream. "Are you feeling alright?"

Amy gave a convincing smile and nodded. "Mmhm! I just started daydreaming a bit, that's all," she said. Sally peered over at Amy while she sipped on some hot chocolate before returning her attention back to her conversation with Knuckles and Rouge.

Amy suddenly frowned. "Wait, Cream, weren't you supposed to leave, like, an hour ago?"

Cream choked on her hot chocolate and jumped out of her seat, startling Cheese and everyone else in the room. "Oh, Chaos! My mother is going to kill me!"

"Hey, hey, it's okay!" Amy placed a hand on her back to calm her down. "I'll go with you and help explain the situation to your mom, okay?"

"Really? Thank you so much, Amy! I'll go grab our coats, and you can get our gifts."

As Cream dashed off to another room, Sonic looked up at Amy with a disappointed look. "You're leaving?" he asked.

Amy, for some reason, felt like she was being scrutinized under everyone's gazes, especially Sally's. "Um, yeah, I don't want Cream to get into too much trouble," she said. "Besides, it's way too late for her to take the train by herself."

Knuckles glanced at his communicator. "Actually, yeah, it's getting pretty late for me too." He turned to Rouge. "Wanna head out, babe?"

"Yes, I need my beauty sleep," she replied, standing up.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Man, you guys are all weak!" he grumbled.

Cream ran back into the room with her coat and scarf on, and handed Amy her garments. "Ready to go?" she asked hastily. Amy nodded, quickly putting her coat on and handing Cream her belongings. The younger girl turned to the rest of the room and bowed her head. "Everyone, I apologize for having to rush out, but thank you so much for a wonderful Christmas!"

The others chimed in with their "goodbyes" and "thank yous" as they waved at her. Sonic stood up. "I'll walk you guys out," he offered. Before they could comply, Cream had already run out the front door, with Cheese chasing after her. "…Or, I'll walk _you_ out," he added, directed towards Amy.

They walked quickly to the front door to find Cream pacing around the front yard anxiously. Amy chuckled and turned towards Sonic. "Merry Christmas, Sonic," she said as she opened the door. "Thanks again for the incredible gift."

He smiled softly. "You too, Ames. Thanks for coming."

They stood there staring at each other for a moment, almost as if both were waiting for something to happen. Then, Amy leaned forward slightly and began to raise her arms as if she was going to give him a hug, but she hesitated. Sonic's expression saddened as she retreated out the door, muttering a quiet, "Bye," but he did not stop her.

As he watched Cream haul her away, he reflected on their evening together and wondered what caused her mood to drop so suddenly. He did notice that there had been an empty space between the two during the past hour—as if everything that had built up between them collapsed when Sally showed up.

Wait, what exactly had been building up between the two?

Sonic shook his head as he walked back to the living room; he was probably thinking too deep into it.

He walked back into the living room and saw Tails, Knuckles, and Rouge talking. Sally was a part of the conversation until she saw him, and she quieted down and continued to stare at him. Sonic gulped and moved towards them, but she blocked off his path.

"Hey, can we talk?" she asked, pointing her thumb over her shoulder and gesturing to the kitchen.

Sonic wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go at that point. He complied and followed her into his kitchen, trying his best to calm down his racing mind.

They leaned back on one of the counters on opposite sides of the room, and Sally folded her arms over her chest. Sonic knew that look in her eyes all too well—she was clearly displeased about something, and he knew, no matter how much he wanted to deny it, it was going to be about Amy.

The last thing Sonic wanted was for them to become hostile against each other because of him. The thought of that made his stomach turn.

"Are you and Amy together, now?" she suddenly asked.

The bandaid had been ripped off; all he had to do was answer. "What? Of course not," he answered. "Why would you say that?"

She arched a brow at him. "Sonic, you were twirling her around the room when I walked in. You rarely allowed Amy to make any physical contact with you in the past, so that was pretty surprising, I'm not gonna lie."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "We were just having a good time, Sal," he argued. "You don't need to get jealous."

She frowned. "I'm not jealous," she said in a stern tone. "I just don't want you to lie to me because you think you're gonna hurt me."

She made a fair statement, and Sonic felt a bit guilty for accusing her of being jealous—something that she rarely did to begin with. "Well, nothing's going on," he affirmed.

Sally let out a frustrated sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Look, Sonic… Although I'm still healing over our breakup, I don't want gatherings to be this awkward and unsettling whenever we see each other. We're all still friends, right?"

He took a step forward. "Of course we are; I never said we aren't."

"We're _all_ still friends," she repeated. "That includes Amy."

He gave a confused look. "What are you getting at?"

She gave him a hard look. "Look, I'm only going to say it once, so listen well: Don't you _dare_ use Amy as a rebound for our breakup," she declared, her voice full of intimidating power. "Because if you're taking advantage of her true feelings for you, and if you hurt her in any way… You'll have to answer to me."

Sonic was rendered silent. Of all the things he was anticipating for Sally to say to him, this was at the bottom of the list, and he had no idea how to respond to it.

Did he actually have feelings for Amy?

And, if he did, was it only a rebound?

He already told himself that he wasn't going to treat Amy like that; that he would put distance between them. Did he completely forget?

"Are we clear, Sonic?"

Sonic snapped out of his thoughts and scowled, finally forming the words he wanted to express. "Sally, I really don't appreciate your accusation of me taking advantage of Amy's feelings," he snapped. "I care about Amy, and I would never do anything to hurt her."

"_Intentionally_," she emphasized. "I care about Amy just as much as you do, and that's why I'm saying this."

"Look, even if I did like Amy—which I don't—what makes you think it would be just for a rebound?" he snapped.

"_That's _what I'm trying to get at Sonic. You claim that you don't like her, yet here you are being really affectionate towards her more than ever before. How do you think that would make her feel if she heard you say that?" She paused for a moment to let him respond, but it appeared that she had struck a chord in him. She sighed again and ran a hand through her red hair. "Amy's always loved you, Sonic. And now, for the first time ever, you're starting to express something back to her. Just, please… she's always had hope for a chance to be with you, so _please..._" she pleaded, her brows furrowing as she met his eyes with hers. "Don't deceive her."

One look in Sally's eyes told him that she meant every word she spoke, and he had to tear his gaze away from her. His mind became cluttered with confused thoughts about everything Sally spoke about, but one question stood out from all the others:

Just what exactly did he feel for Amy Rose?

* * *

**A/N: Yikes oh my god this fic literally hasn't been updated in over a year. I'm so sorry to everyone, and I appreciate those who have stuck around to read this chapter (I got to nearly 7,000 words! Can you believe it?)**

**Anyways, my life just became very busy after my last update. I got a job over that summer and my sophomore year at college has been beating my ass hard. **

**However, I wrote it in my bio, and I'll say it here: I will not give up on this fic. I do intend to finish it, and I have a few future chapters already written up (that obviously need revision since they were written at least a year ago), I just got really really stuck halfway through this chapter. **

**If you do wish to keep up with updates on the story writing, I always try to update my profile bio every now and then with where the next chapter is at. Plus, you guys have full permission to shoot me a message on my tumblr ( nagi-dawn) since I'm active on it every day.**

**ALSO I'm sorry if I fuck up little parts of the plot! Over the year I think I subconsciously changed some things, and I'm trying to go through the chapters to find any plot errors.**

**Thanks, guys! See you soon!**


	7. Holding Back

**A/N: slight Shadamy in this chapter, but strong Sonamy. **

**A song I listened to while writing this chapter was If Not You Then Who by Spazzkid, it's a really chill tune if anybody needs something to doze off to.**

* * *

VII—Holding Back

A month passed after the new year began and Amy hadn't heard anything from Sonic—no hello, no meet ups—nothing.

The last time Amy had interacted with him was a very simple and meaningless "Happy New Years" exchange on new years day.

They had all been invited to a New Years Eve bash held by the Chaotix detectives, and it was a large gathering; much bigger than Sonic and Tails' tiny Christmas party. Amy had spent majority of the night close to Tails and Cream, and although she tried to force her way through the crowds to be with Sonic, he had clearly been trying to avoid her throughout the whole night.

When the clock had struck midnight, cheers and shouts rang through the catering hall. Amy hugged the closest person to her, which was Tails, and he bashfully hugged her back, wishing her a happy new year.

Right as she was about to turn away to find Cream, Sonic had rushed by, stopping to wish Tails a happy new years. Had he known Amy was standing there, he probably would have zoomed straight past them, but he had been too oblivious.

When they made eye contact, he began to shy away, but she placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Happy New Years, Sonic!" she said as cheerfully as she could, grinning brightly at him.

He scratched the side of his face and returned a weak smile, replying, "Happy New Years, Ames."

She opened her mouth to talk about anything that would keep him put, but he had started to retreat back into the crowd, making up an excuse that went along the lines of, "I, uh, gotta go give wishes to other people, so..." and he dashed away.

She felt so heartbroken that as soon as she finished giving new years wishes to her friends, she left as quickly as she could.

Amy now sat on her couch, feeling tears stinging the back of her eyes as she recalled that awful night. She glanced at her wrist communicator every so often to see if she had any missed messages from Sonic, but she knew she was only fooling herself.

It was ridiculous, but she felt as if she had been dumped by someone she was never dating to begin with.

_'And the worst part is that I don't understand why,'_ she thought to herself, letting some of her tears fall.

Her chest ached whenever she recalled how wonderful their time spent together was up until the Christmas party. She couldn't figure out what she did wrong to make him want to avoid her, and she couldn't even get into contact with him to find out. He wouldn't answer her messages, no matter how persistent she was. Tails tried to help her as much as he could and approached the blue hedgehog about it multiple times, but Sonic either brushed it off as nothing or said he didn't want to talk about it.

Amy brought her knees close to her chest and she sighed. She then heard a noise from her mailbox outside, and she zipped out the front door to grab the mail that was just placed.

She carried her small stack of mail back inside and absently flipped through every letter until she landed on one particular envelope that was addressed to her in neat, cursive writing.

The letter was from non other than Sally, and Amy grinned from ear to ear, sitting down and proceeding to read it. The two had somehow become pen pals after Amy had sent her the gift basket for Christmas, and Amy couldn't have been any happier to be in constant contact with her. They could've easily sent messages trough their communicators, but they both agreed that writing each other was much more exciting.

Sally normally talked about her busy new life as queen, but in this particular letter, however, she brought up something that left Amy struck.

_"This might be an odd question, but how are things between you and Sonic?"_ is what she wrote at the end.

Amy arched a brow and looked up from her paper. Sally had briefly mentioned Sonic's name only once in a previous letter when talking about their breakup, and it made her wonder why she would bring up him and Amy's relationship so suddenly. A month ago, Amy didn't want to assume that Sonic's silence was correlated to Sally showing up at the Christmas party, but for to suddenly ask that out of the blue brought the pink hedgehog's suspicions back.

What Amy feared most was that Sally was jealous and upset after seeing them together at the party and told Sonic something that made him want to avoid Amy.

_'But Sally wouldn't do that, right?'_ she thought, her brows furrowing.

Amy shook her head and pulled out a blank paper and a pen to begin writing back. Sally had to have asked for some reason, and if Amy was honest with her, maybe she could get to the bottom of what was going on with Sonic.

Amy spent about thirty minutes writing back to everything else Sally had said in the letter. At the end, she answered Sally's question as simply as she could.

_"I haven'__t__ really talked to Sonic since the Christmas party. He's been avoiding me for a while now, but I'm not sure why. I'm just hoping I didn't do anything to upset him."_

Amy sent the letter to the Acorn Castle later that day, and all there was left to do was wait.

* * *

Another week passed, and Sonic was still silent with Amy.

Valentine's Day had showed up out of nowhere, slapping Amy right in the face when she woke up that morning. She had the slightest urge to call Sonic and demand that he take her out like she did in the past, but things were so much different now. She was beginning to doubt not only herself, and but Sally as well; it was all too suspicious, and, in a way, Amy felt a bit betrayed by both her and Sonic.

Was it possible they had gotten back together? The thought of that gave Amy a hallow feeling in her stomach.

She couldn't help but feel more alone than ever on her favorite day of the year.

Amy sulked in bed before she suddenly pulled herself out and jumped up—she refused to feel depressed on Valentine's Day, her favorite day of the year.

As she went to go brush her quills, something golden fell from her dresser and onto the floor. She picked up the sleek card and stared at it for a moment before her eyes lit up.

"I'll treat myself today, for a change!" she announced loudly to herself, studying the shimmer of the gold credit card in her hand. She was so busy moping around since Christmas that she had forgotten about Sonic's incredible gift, and she decided she wasn't gonna waste anymore time without using it.

She dressed herself in a white turtleneck sweater, along with a yellow skirt, a black headband with the butterfly hairpin clipped onto it, and warm, black over the knee boots. She did a little twirl in front of the mirror, satisfied with her outfit for the day. She would've loved for Sonic to see her that day, but she refused to think about him; it was going to be all about her on that Valentine's Day.

Amy spent about two hours in that fancy store, trying on all the clothes she pleased. They had everything from pajamas to underwear to jewelry, and she was going to redo her entire wardrobe if it meant she didn't have to spend a dime. However, it got to the point where she couldn't carry everything home, and the sales associate set up a delivery for her. By the end of her shopping spree, she only left with one bag.

After Amy purchased everything with her card and left the store, she decided to walk around the city a bit more. A lot of shops were decorated for the occasion, and she took note of all the couples roaming around the city. Deep down, she longed for a date as well, but seeing other strangers happy didnt fail to put a smile on her face.

She then passed by a small, but busy coffee shop that had a line going out the door. There was a sign up announcing a special hot chocolate they only served on Valentine's Day, which was most likely the cause of the line, and Amy was going to keep walking until someone familiar in the line caught her eye.

"Shadow!" she called, walking towards the front of the line to where he was standing.

Shadow's head perked up and he turned to face her. He was also dressed up in warm clothing. "What?" he said.

She lowered her eyelids at him; no hello?

"Are you getting the hot chocolate special?" she asked playfully.

He scoffed and buried his face in his scarf. "Maybe."

She placed her hands behind her back and began to snicker. "I didn't really take you to be the kind of guy who gets hot chocolate specials on Valentine's Day."

He glowered at her. "My preferences on hot beverages have nothing to do with whatever holidays are going on." He peered down at her bag. "And it seems that no matter what day it is, you still can't contain your uncontrollable shopping urges."

"Hey!" she snapped, giving him a light but playful shove. "I can shop whenever I want!"

He gave a small smirk. "And I can buy hot chocolate whenever I want."

She puffed her cheeks out and placed her hands on her hips. "You can't take a joke," she muttered.

He glanced at her. "Shouldn't you be spending today with that blue faker?" he asked, ignoring her comment.

She blinked and stared at him before huffing and turning her head away. "Sonic, who? Never heard of him!" she growled.

Shadow chuckled, causing Amy to whip her head back and watch the rare occurrence of him expressing some form of joy. "Interesting," he said, facing the front of the line again.

They were quiet for a moment until an idea popped into Amy's head. "Hey, Shadow, do you want to get something to eat with me?" she asked. He turned and gave her a weird look, and she rolled her eyes. "I've been meaning to thank you for saving my life a few months back when Eggman attacked the city. Do you remember?"

He stared at her intently before shrugging. "You don't need to thank me."

"Yeah, but I want to," she grabbed his arm and gave it a light tug. "Come on, let's just grab a quick bite!"

He jerked his arm back. "Fine, but I want my hot chocolate, first."

She giggled. "Right, sorry."

* * *

When Sonic felt his stomach growl, he knew it was time to stop lazing around all day and get something to eat. He lifted himself off of the couch and poked his head into the garage, where Tails was found fixing the heating system.

"Hey, bud, I'm gonna run to town to grab some food," he called out. "Do you want anything?"

Tails lifted his head up and cocked his head to the side in thought. "No, I think I'm good," he said, standing up and dusting himself off. "I finished fixing this thing, by the way, so our hot water should be working fine now."

The latter gave him a thumbs up. "Cool, thanks, Tails! I'll be back in a few..."

"Sonic, wait," Tails spoke up, causing him to stop right on his tracks. "We need to talk."

Sonic gave an inquisitive look. "What's up?"

"It's about Amy."

"You know, I already pressed the button on that chili dog thing, so my food's probably ready by now..."

Tails rolled his eyes. "I don't care. Look, it's Valentine's Day, so could you at least send her _some_ message? I don't get why you've been acting like this towards her."

"Acting like what?" Sonic replied in a slightly annoyed tone. "Tails, this is the typical routine we've always had for years. She keeps persisting to go out on dates with me, and I avoid her."

The yellow fox shook his head. "No, you've been acting like a jerk to her," he stated, making Sonic frown. "Ever since the Christmas party, you've been blatantly ignoring her, and she's really upset about it. You guys looked like you were on the brink of dating before then, so what gives?"

Sonic sighed. "Look, Tails, it's just complicated. It'll blow over eventually, trust me."

Tails felt his frustration building inside him. He hated seeing Amy so upset, and he hated more that the cause of her sadness was his own best friend.

Sonic turned to leave, assuming the conversation was over, but then, Tails blurted out something he knew he shouldn't have.

"So, Sally was right, then? You were just rebounding on her?"

"What?!" Sonic snapped, glaring at his best friend. "Where did you hear that from?"

Tails' ears dropped in a guilty manner, but still kept his stern expression. "When you and Sally went, I had to get something from the kitchen, and while I was waiting... I happened to hear everything."

"That's not cool, Tails."

"I'm sorry, but I was afraid she was gonna put different things into your head," Tails argued. "At first, I thought she was spouting nonsense, but now I understand her concerns. You ignoring Amy like this is only proving her right."

"I don't want to talk about this," Sonic left the garage, but Tails was on his heels.

"You can't keep ignoring Amy like this, Sonic! Maybe you subconsciously just wanted her attention because you needed it after the break up, but now-"

"That's not it, Tails!" he exclaimed, causing Tails to take a step back. Sonic ran a hand through his quills and was speaking very quickly, "I didn't think it was possible for me to like Amy, but after Sally messed with my head, I suddenly realized I had all these feelings for Amy that I had been ignoring this whole time. I want to keep spending time with her, but what if what Sally said _is_ true, and these feelings aren't real? What if I _a__m_ rebounding and I don't know it?"

Tails' features softened, and he raised his hands to try to calm him down. "Relax, Sonic."

Sonic obeyed and took in a deep breath, and Tails continued, "Listen, I think you would know if you were rebounding. But if you think you like Amy, then you shouldn't run away from it. That won't solve anything."

Sonic gulped and nodded his head. "Yeah, you're probably right, bud..." he muttered.

Tails patted his back. "You should probably go get your chili dog, that'll calm you down. We can talk when you get back, if you're up for it." He smiled. "I want to help."

The blue hedgehog chuckled and threw a coat on. "Yeah, no kidding. Be right back."

Sonic arrived at his destination in just a few seconds, his chili dog prepared perfectly for him to scarf down. As he ate, he gazed around the area, watching all the lovebirds stroll around for the day. He couldn't deny that seeing them made him miss Amy's company greatly.

The hero tried shaking the feeling off as he finished his chili dog. He started walking down the street and passed by an outdoor café that had all the tables set up around a large fire pit, which caught his eye. He recalled Amy always talking about it, and as he looked around the place, he spotted said hedgehog sitting at a table with someone.

He froze in place.

Her back was facing him, so it's not like she would have seen him, which gave him the chance to book it... until he saw who she was sitting with.

When his eyes landed on Shadow, he felt something boil up inside him—something he had never felt so strongly before, not even when he was dating Sally, and he knew exactly what it was.

Jealousy.

While Sonic was busy fuming in the background, Amy and Shadow were enjoying a dessert plate of various cookies. She was heavily invested in a story Shadow was telling about a G.U.N. mission Team Dark had gone on recently. He put a lot of emphasis on his annoyance with Rouge's tendencies to get distracted during their missions and start phone calls with her new boyfriend, which made Amy laugh loudly.

Admittedly, Shadow was a little surprised that she enjoyed listening to his stories so much, but he didn't mind.

He went to go grab a rainbow cookie from the plate, but noticed there were none left. "Did you eat them all?" he asked her.

She lightly blushed in embarrassment. "Yeah, sorry, it's my favorite cookie," she answered bashfully.

"You're awfully greedy," he smirked.

"Shadow!" she pouted and folded her arms over her chest, grumbling, "You're so mean to me," to which he chuckled at.

Shadow opened his mouth to retort, but he looked up to find Sonic standing right behind her, arms folded over his chest and foot tapping rapidly. He had a deadly glare locked onto Shadow, but he didn't say anything, as if he was waiting for the darker hedgehog to speak first.

But, in all honesty, Shadow couldn't have cared less about whatever that blue idiot was being dramatic about.

He shook his head and turned his attention back to Amy. "Anyways..."

"Hey!" Sonic shouted, causing Amy to shudder and yelp. "Don't ignore me!"

"Sonic, that was right in my ear!" Amy snapped, turning around to face him. But after her mind actually registered his presence, she fell into a shocked state. "Wait! Sonic? What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same thing," he responded, shifting his gaze to her. "What are you doing here with _him_?"

Her shock quickly morphed into anger. "Why does it suddenly matter to you? Shouldn't you be busy ignoring me?" she growled, turning herself back to Shadow with a, "Hmph!"

Sonic felt a sting in his chest from those words, but he refused to back down. Before he could respond, however, Shadow intervened. "What's wrong, Faker? Does it bother you that I'm spending time with Rose?"

"What- _Rose_?" Sonic nearly had steam blowing out if his ears. "Is that supposed to be some kind of nickname?"

The darker hedgehog shrugged. "It could be." He glanced at Amy. "Does it bother you?"

"I don't mind," she replied.

He returned his gaze to Sonic with a very smug grin. "Then, to answer your question—yes, it is."

Sonic's fists tightened and he gave a hard look to the pink hedgehog. "Amy, can I talk to you in private?"

"Can't you see I'm on a date right now?" she replied.

He gasped, "D-Date?!"

Normally, Shadow would have objected toAmy's ridiculous claim, but he was enjoying Sonic's angry reactions too much.

He leaned back in his chair and smirked. "I suppose this does look like a date considering it _is_ Valentine's Day."

Amy wanted to laugh, but when she glanced at Sonic, he had a hurt expression she had rarely seen on him before, and she felt the image burn in her mind and all the way through to her heart.

"Can we please talk?" he repeated, this time in a much more serious tone. They stared at each other intently for a moment before Amy sighed and turned to Shadow.

Before she could say anything, he waved her off. "Go ahead, I don't mind," he said absently, standing up from the table. As he turned to leave, he glanced back at her. "Thanks for the treat, Rose. It was... fun."

Amy smiled lightly and waved at him as he left. Sonic scowled in his direction before grabbing Amy's arm. "Come on, let's go," he murmured, quickly pulling her down the street.

"W-Woah, Sonic!" she gasped, trying to keep up with his quick pace. "Slow down! Why are you being so rough?"

He eased his grip on her, but still continued at his pace. "To get away from that creep," he said.

"Stop!" She yanked her arm away from him when they were further away from public and closer to the boardwalk by the ocean. She tried to catch her breath once they stopped. "What is your problem, Sonic?"

"My problem? Why were you on a date with _Shadow_?" he asked in a demanding tone.

Amy rolled her eyes. "It was a joke. We just happened to run into each other and got hungry."

He pouted and turned his head away, shoving his hands in his jacket pockets and muttering, "Yeah, well, it wasn't funny..."

She continued to stare at him without a word, and when he gave her a questioning look, she threw her hands in the air. "Well? You wanted to talk to me so badly, so are you gonna tell me why you've been ignoring me for—literally—_months_?"

He winced at the anger in her voice, and he took in a deep breath. "Well, I..." he trailed off, suddenly at a loss for words.

Amy waited for him to speak, but after a few moments, she just sighed and hung her head down. "Sonic, sometimes you're so confusing and it's really frustrating-"

"I'm sorry, Ames," he suddenly cut her off. "I'm sorry for avoiding you for such a long time now. It was wrong of me to do."

His eyes met hers as he stepped closer to her, and she frowned. "Why, though?" She was on the brink of tears. "What did I do to make you hate me?"

"What? No, you didn't do anything!" he sputtered. "Amy, I was not even _close_ to being upset with you."

She looked away as her tears began to fall, and she sobbed, lifting her hand to wipe her eyes. "I don't believe you..." she whimpered.

Sonic could feel his heart crumbling at the sight of her looking so upset and knowing that he was the reason why. "Amy, please," he placed his hands on her shoulders, "I swear, it wasn't because I was mad at you."

"Then why?" she cried, turning back to him.

He bit his lip and looked away. "I... something happened with Sally at the Christmas party and, afterwards, I had a lot on my mind."

Her eyes widened, and her lip quivered. "Y-You… Did you guys get back together?"

"No," he answered sternly, shaking his head furiously. "Absolutely not. We just had a… weird conversation."

She could feel some of the weight get lifted off her shoulders, but the uncertainty wasn't entirely gone. "You know you can talk to me about anything, right?" she said.

He rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled. "Yeah, but... not this time. I just needed some space to figure things out-"

"You could've at least told me _that_, Sonic!" she suddenly shouted. "Do you know how much it hurt knowing that there was something wrong, and no matter how hard I tried to reach out, you would push me away?!"

Out of nowhere, Sonic pulled her into a tight embrace, and she dropped her bag, flinging her arms around his neck. Her body was trembling, and it only made him want to hold onto her more, and despite her anger, she still clung onto him.

"You're right. I'm sorry," he said quietly. "But, I promise, I won't hurt you anymore."

She rested her head on his shoulder as her sobbing ceased. One of his hands slowly went up to caress her quills, but the moment he started, he stopped himself and pulled back from the hug.

He gave her a little smile and put his hand on her cheek, wiping away any remaining tears with his thumb. "Come on, don't cry. You don't need to worry anymore."

She arched a brow and placed a hand on her hip. "You sure about that?" she asked with her typical attitude that made him grin.

"Yeah, I'll make it up to you, I promise."

She nodded and lightly leaned into his touch, and his heart began to race. He wanted to do something, _anything _to pursue his feelings, but he knew he still didn't understand them entirely.

They couldn't rush into it—there were too many risks.

He caved into his doubt and pulled his hand back, taking a step away from her. "Why don't we head back to my place for a heavy junk food movie night?" he said, trying to prevent an awkward atmosphere.

Amy smiled and nodded. "Fine, but you better have strawberry ice cream."

He chuckled and began to lead the way. "We always do just for you, Ames."

* * *

A few days later, Amy was feeling a lot more optimistic than she had ever felt within the past month. Her and Sonic had gone back to their normal friendship, and Tails was happy to see that they had made amends.

The only thing that still bothered the back of her mind was Sally. She had no idea what the chipmunk could have said to Sonic that made him want to avoid Amy, but it was possible that her worst fears might have been be true. On top of that, Sally hadn't responded to the last letter she sent, but Amy knew that her new lifestyle was extremely hectic, and she always took longer than Amy to respond. Amy would continue to give her the benefit of the doubt until she knew the whole truth.

At around midday, Amy had finished eating lunch when there was suddenly a knock at her door. She didn't recall inviting anyone over, but then her heart skipped a beat at the thought of it being Sonic.

She rushed to the front and swung the door open, and her jaw dropped at the sight of who was standing before her.

"Sally?!" she exclaimed.

Sally smiled sheepishly at the pink hedgehog. "Hey, Amy," she said with a little wave. "Sorry for the unexpected visit, I just-"

Amy dashes forward and tightly embraced the chipmunk. "No, this is such a nice pleasant surprise!" she said excitedly, and Sally chuckled. "I haven't heard from you in a while. Come in, I'll make some tea."

As Amy pulled her inside to sit her down in her dining room, Sally spoke. "I'm sorry, I've had a lot of duties to take care of this past week and I couldn't get the chance to write you back."

"It's fine, don't worry about it. I'm sure you're doing an amazing job as queen," Amy commented, making Sally smile and blush. "Give me a few, I'll be right back."

"Ah, Amy, wait-"

She didn't notice Sally trying to speak to her, and she quickly left to get snacks, leaving Sally sitting alone. Sally's foot was tapping rapidly under the table, and she took in a nervous breath, trying to calm herself down.

After a few minutes, Amy returned with their tea and sat on the other side of the small table. Sally was twiddling her thumbs and staring down at the table with a slightly anxious look on her face. "Look, Amy..." she began.

"So, what brings you here?" Amy asked as she served her tea, a bright smile on her face.

Sally's blue eyes made contact with her emerald eyes, and she gave a nervous grin back. "O-Oh, well, um..." Her eyes began to wander around the room. "I just... wanted to hang out, is all."

Amy immediately sensed her awkward behavior, and she stared with curiosity. "Is there something on your mind that you want to talk about, Sally?"

Sally winced at the question and turned back to face her. There was a moment of hesitation before she sighed and brought one hand up to her forehead. "I'm sorry, Amy," she said in a low voice. "You know that I've always been bad with confrontations."

Amy cocked her head to the side, but before she could question it, Sally continued, "The second I read your letter today, I had to rush over here... Sonic's behavior towards you lately is my fault, and I'm so sorry." Amy's eyes slowly widened as she spoke. "It wasn't my intentions to push him away from you, but he can just be so difficult...!"

"Hold on," Amy interrupted, shaking her head, "what are you talking about? What happened?"

Sally bit her lip. "Well, after you left the Christmas party, I pulled him aside to talk to him about you." She suddenly threw her hands up in defense. "Just to make one thing clear, I wasn't mad at you! I know you've liked Sonic for a long time, and I don't want to get in the way of whatever sparks between you two." She paused for a moment and folded her arms over her chest, looking up and gathering her thoughts. "Okay, admittedly, maybe I was a little jealous when I saw him holding you, but... but that doesn't matter."

Amy frowned deeply. "Sally... did you tell him to stay away from me?" she asked quietly.

Sally leapt out of her seat. "No!" she exclaimed, startling Amy. "Absolutely not, I would never!" She sat back down and ran a hand through her hair. "When I pulled him aside, I knew that you guys were probably going to become a couple soon enough, so I... I gave him a warning."

The pink hedgehog arched a brow. "A warning?" she questioned.

Sally looked unsure. "Okay, maybe not a warning... Maybe it was a threat." Amy's eyes widened and she sighed again. "I told him that if he hurt you, he would have to answer to me."

Amy's jaw nearly dropped; that was the last thing she expected Sally to say to Sonic of all people. She quickly collected her thoughts to process the story. "U-Um, I see... but why would you be worried about him hurting me?"

"I was afraid that he was rebounding on you," she explained. "I know it's ridiculous, and maybe I shouldn't have assumed that, but I just had a really bad feeling because I know him and I both have gone through the same thing in the past."

Amy gazed down at her teacup; she couldn't deny that Sally had a reasonable concern. It would explain why Sonic suddenly became so attached to her after he broke up with the latter.

"While we talked, he kept denying that he had any feelings for you. I think I overwhelmed him, and I think that's why he avoided you," Sally added. She then reached out and grabbed Amy's hand. "Amy, I've known Sonic for a long time, and I'm positive that he likes you. He might be keeping his distance to figure out his feelings for you."

Amy could feel her heart racing. It was a lot for her to take in, but at the same time, she felt all of the remaining doubt fade away, and it made her want to smile.

Did Sonic actually like her?

"Amy, I can't apologize enough. My intentions weren't to ruin whatever was going on between you two, I just didn't want you to get hurt," Sally urged, her voice filled with sadness. "I'll try talking to him, if you want me to, but I get if you don't want me meddling anymore."

Amy could tell that Sally was genuinely worried about them amongst all her other worries, and she felt a little bad for her. She lightly squeezed Sally's hand. "It's alright, Sally. I'm not mad," she said with a soft smile. "I'm a little relieved that you told me, actually. I feel a lot better." Sally gave a little smile back, although the guilt was still present in her eyes. "Besides, Sonic and I actually made up a few days ago, so things are back to normal. You don't need to worry anymore."

"Really? Oh," she sighed, leaning back in her seat, "that's so good to hear. You don't know how relieved that makes _me _feel."

Amy giggled but then suddenly looked concerned. "Are you sure you're okay with this, Sally? I mean-,"

"Shh," Sally put her hand over Amy's mouth and smiled. "Sonic dumped me, and nothing's going to change that. You two are still more important to me than whatever lingering feelings I still have left for him. I'll get over it, in time." Amy's smile widened and she nodded.

The two continued to converse over their tea when a device in Sally's jacket pocket started going off, and her ears perked up as she took it out. "Excuse me," she told her, placing the small phone to her ear. Amy could here a loud voice yelling on the other end, and Sally shuddered, pulling the phone away from her ear.

After a moment, the other person hung up, and Sally sighed, placing it back in her pocket. "Who was _that_?"

"My secretary," she grumbled in response, standing up. "It's not something I do often, but I skipped on my royal duties today to come see you."

"What?" Amy was shocked. "That's so sweet of you, but now I feel bad."

"Don't be, I care about our friendship more than a little scolding," Sally grinned. "But, still, I should probably get going now."

Amy led Sally to the door and saw her off, but not before exchanging their hugs and goodbyes. As she watched the other girl run off to catch the train, she pondered over their extensive conversation. Sally's actions had really thrown her off, but she was glad to have a friend who cared for her so much, and especially glad that Amy didn't let her negative thoughts get to her head. Amy knew she had every right to be mad at her, but that wasn't going to help anything, especially since she went out of her way to apologize for her mishap.

The thought of Sonic having feelings for her excited her heart to no end. Her dreams of them becoming an official couple were so close she could touch them, and she felt more confident in herself than she ever had before.

If he still needed time to decipher his feelings, then she wouldn't pressure him—she just hoped he would come to her when the time was right, and that the time would be soon.

* * *

**A/N: Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. Sally will still remain significant for the rest of the story, I did not bring her in just to be the ex gf.**

**This was supposed to be the last flashback chapter but there was too much and I figured I'd split it. The next chapter is under way and should be the last flashback chapter, and after that, there should be either one or two more chapters until the mid-story finale, depending on how much I write. **

**Also, happy belated birthday to my boy Sonic! :)**


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